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MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE 

BY 

ADMIEAL 
CHARLES LORD COLCHESTER 



MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE 

FROM 1798 TO 1859 INCLUSIVE 

BY 

ADMIRAL 

CHAELES LOED COLCHESTEE .., 

In Um mxte 



PART I. PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842 INCLUSIVE 
PART II. POLITICAL EVENTS . . . 1833 TO 1852 INCLUSIVE 
PART III. POLITICAL EVENTS . . . 1853 TO 1859 INCLUSIVE 



NOT PUBLISHER 



LONDON 

PRINTED BY 

POTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE, FARR1NGDON STREET 
AND 30 PARLIAMENT STREET, WESTMINSTER 

1869 






^ 



C> 



205449 



To Reginald Charles Edward Lord Colchester, 



My dearest Reginald, 

It was at rny earnest request that your dear 
father was prevailed upon to write the following 
c Memoranda of his Life ' for your private gratifi- 
cation and information, and in complying with my 
wishes, this was the only object he had in view. 

But having lately shown the manuscript to a 
member of my family, upon whose judgment I can 
rely, he expressed so cordial a concurrence in my 
opinion that the ' Memoranda ' contained too valuable 
a Record of Political Events to be allowed to slumber 
in oblivion, exposed moreover to the risk attending 
its existence in the form of a solitary manuscript, 
that I resolved at once to print a limited number of 
copies for private circulation, feeling confident that 
the familiar style in which the work is written 
(though not adapted for publication) would render 
it only the more interesting to those intimate friends 



VI 

who had long valued and enjoyed his acquaintance 
and society. And now, under its new form, I offer 
it to you, my dearest Eeginald, as a tribute of 
devotion to the memory of your beloved and lamented 
father, and of fond attachment to yourself, from your 
widowed and affectionate mother, 

Elizabeth S. Colchester. 

October \%th, 1869. 



As you lately expressed a desire, my dear Reginald, 
to know more of the occurrences of my earlier life 
than you had gained by casual conversation, I have, 
in the following pages, drawn, chiefly from memory, 
a sketch of the principal .events in it up to the time 
of your birth, omitting details, which you may here- 
after read in my various diaries and correspondence. 

C. 

London : 

December, 1854. 



Errata 



ige 5, line 


7, 


for sent 


read beat 


5, „ 


22, 


„ Athenian 


„ Albanian 


„ 16, „ 


21, 


„ Leone 


,, Larne 


56, „ 


8, 


,, Systemise 


„ Systematise 


71, „ 


3, 


„ Warncliffe 


., Wharncliffe 


89, „ 


11, 


„ Nerzeb 


„ Nesib 


90, „ 


1, 


„ La Place 


,, Lalandc 


„ 160, „ 


25, 


„ Frederica 


,, Fredericia 


„ 161, „ 


17 & 


24, „ 'Whisk 


„ Whish 


„ 176, „ 


17, 


„ Nevillin Park 


„ in Nevill Paris 


„ 182, „ 


14, 


,, Toury 


. . Towry 


„ 246, „ 


6, 


„ Whitford 


„ AVhitworth 


„ 254, „ 


13, 


„ Clark 


„ Clerk 


„ 258, „ 


17, 


„ Trekter 


„ Traktir 


„ 305, „ 


10, 


,, Livradio 


. , Lavradio 


» 323, „ 


2, 


,, Hans 


,, Hanse 



MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 



BY 



ADMIRAL CHARLES LORD COLCHESTER, 



PART I. 1798-1842. 

I was born (as I have been informed) on March. 12th, 
1798, in a house on the south side of Pall Mall, which 
is now 78. My father was at that time M.P. for the 
borough of Helstone, in Cornwall, and held the office 
of Clerk of the Rules in the Court of King's Bench, 
a situation of about 3,000?. a year. Upon the change 
of the Government in 1801, * my father, being ap- 
pointed Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of 
Ireland, 2 and Keeper of the Privy Seal of Ireland, we 
proceeded to Ireland, and resided at the Chief Secre- 
tary's Lodge, in the Phoenix Park, during the recess 
of Parliament : one of the water-colour paintings in 
the drawing-room at Kidbrooke, represents the lodge 
as it then existed. In 1802, the Speaker of the House 
of Commons, Sir John Mitford, having been appointed 
Chancellor of Ireland, and created Lord Eedesdale, 
your grandfather was elected to succeed him in the 
chair of the House of Commons, resigning in conse- 
quence his office of Chief Secretary for Ireland, but 

1 When Mr. Addington (afterwards Lord Sidmouth) succeeded Mr. 
Pitt as Prime Minister. 

2 Philip Earl of Hardwicke. 

B 



2 MEMOEANDA OF MY LIFE. 

retaining the Privy Seal, which was an office for life, 
and was given him as some compensation for having 
given up his office of Clerk of the Eules, which could 
not be held with the Secretaryship for Ireland. We 
now finally quitted Pall Mall, and went to reside in 
the official house of the Speaker, in New Palace Yard. 
That house was partially destroyed by fire, in 1834, 
and has been entirely swept away, to make room for 
the new buildings of the existing Houses of Parlia- 
ment. A view of it, as it appeared during the latter 
part of your grandfather's Speakership, hangs up in 
the dining-room in London. In this year (1802) Kid- 
brooke was bought ; and your uncle, Philip Abbot, was 
born. 

In 1806, I was sent to Westminster school, after 
the Bartholomewtide holidays, being then eight years 
and a half old ; and was placed in the under second 
form. The head-master of that time was Dr. William 
Carey, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, and finally of 
St. Asaph. I remained at Westminster till April, 
1811 ; having by that time worked my way up to the 
upper fifth form. I boarded at a house, at the upper 
end of Deans-yard, kept by a Mrs. Glover. Among 
the boys who were in that house at this period was 
the present Duke of Eichmond (then Lord March), 
Lord Westminster (then Belgrave), and his two bro- 
thers, Lord Wilton and Lord Robert Grosvenor, Lord 
Dynevor (then George de Cardonnell), Lord Hotham, 
and my most intimate school friend, Henry Bull, now 
a clergyman. 1 The present bishops of St. Asaph 

1 Also William De Eos, now Lord De Eos, and Williams. M.P. for 
Marlow. 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 3 

(Short) and Eipon (Longley) and Lord Barrington 1 
•were also at Westminster during part of this time. 

On April 8th, 1811, 1 entered the navy, on board the 
6 Eevenge,' 74, at Portsmouth, where she was fitting 
to receive the flag of Eear-Admiral the Honourable 
Arthur Legge. In June we sailed for Cadiz, at that 
time besieged, or rather blockaded, by the French 
army under Marshal Victor, as the Spaniards assisted 
by English troops, and our English squadron, held 
not only the city of Cadiz, but the whole Isle of Leon, 
at the extremity of which that city is built. The 
squadron, which Admiral Legge took the command 
of on our arrival, consisted of four ships of the line, 
a number of smaller ships and gunboats. I remained 
on board the ' Revenge ' till April 1812 ; sometimes 
cruising off the entrance of the Mediterranean, be- 
tween Cape Spartel and Cape Trafalgar ; but chiefly 
at anchor in Cadiz Bay, where skirmishes sometimes 
took place between our gunboats and the French bat- 
teries, but no event of serious importance took place. 
It having been decided that I should complete the 
theoretical portion of my naval education at the 
Eoyal Naval College at Portsmouth, I left the 
6 Eevenge ' for that in May 1812, returning to Eng- 
land in the ' Warspite,' 74, commanded by Captain 
the Honourable Henry Blackwood. 

1 Also the present Lord Gage. 

Eliot ,, Lord St. Germans. 
Keppel „ Lord Albemarle. 
Rous „ Lord Stradbroke. 
Henry Rous now Rear Admiral. 
Lowther „ Sir John Lowther. 

Harwood „ Vicar of East Grinstead. 
Paget present Marquis of Anglesea. 
Bourke „ Earl of Mayo. 
B 2 



4 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

On board the e Kevenge ' I commenced my ac- 
quaintance with the present Rear- Admiral Moorsom, 
then one of the senior midshipmen, which has con- 
tinued in an uninterrupted friendship to the present 
day. I joined the Naval College in June 1812, and 
continued my studies there till November 1813, * 
when having completed the prescribed course of 
education, and having gained the first mathematical 
prize for the year, a silver medal, I was discharged to 
join H.M. Ship ' Bacchante,' 88, commanded by Cap- 
tain (afterwards Sir William) Hoste. My most inti- 
mate friend and competitor in study was Henry 
Moorsom (brother of my shipmate in ' Eevenge '), who 
died a commander about 1826. Among my other 
college acquaintances were the present Lord Hard- 
wicke, the Honourable Francis Maude, Charles 
Frankland, J. F. Browne (afterwards my messmate 
on board ' Bacchante '), Francis Cotton, Henry 
Hoper, and Marcus Brownrigge (afterwards my 
messmates on board ' Alceste ') ; 2 and your mother's 
brother, John Law, who afterwards quitted the navy 
for the army, and died in the year 1834. 

The c Bacchante ' being at this time employed in 
the Adriatic, in order to join her, I was first put 
on board the ' Indus,' 74, Captain (now Admiral) Sir 
William Gage, which took me as far as Port Mahon. 
In crossing the Bay of Biscay, we met with one of 
the heaviest gales it has been my fortune to witness ; 



1 At time of my joining the College, I was introduced to Mr. Spencer, 
the Ordnance Storekeeper at Portsmouth, who made his house my home 
whenever I went to Portsmouth, June 1813 to 1833. 

2 Also Townshend, now Captain E.N. and M.P. for Tamworth ; and 
heir to the Marquis of Townshend. 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 5 

oiir convoy of 120 sail of vessels was entirely dis- 
persed; and the convoy nnder the charge of Lord 
Colville, which had sailed just before, met a similar 
fate. As soon as the gale abated, we ran down the 
north coast of Spain as far as Santander, a portion 
of our convoy being laden with stores for Lord 
Wellington's army ; and then sent back to Corunna, 
where we collected as many as we could of those 
bound to the Mediterraneau. At Port Mahon I was 
transferred to the e Repulse,' 74, Captain Mowbray, 
and in her proceeded, by the way of Palermo, to 
Malta. After remaining there a few days, I was put 
on board the c Badger,' bound to the Adriatic, and 
finally reached my own ship off Lissa, on March 13th, 
1814. During the following two months we were 
employed cruising among the Ionian Islands, Corfu 
being still in the hands of the French, who occupied 
it with a force said to amount to 15,000 troops. One 
day, after reconnoitring the harbour, in which lay a 
French frigate and several gunboats, in working 
down the channel between the island and the 
Athenian coast, the ship suddenly grounded, and 
we could not get her afloat again till after we had 
thrown overboard fifteen of our maindeck guns. We 
were not above eight miles from the harbour of 
Corfu ; but either the French did not observe our 
situation, or would not venture out to attack us. 
The next day we recovered most of our guns, and 
continued our cruise. A few days afterwards, in 
company with the 'Havannah,' 36, we assisted at 
the capture of the town of Parga on the mainland, 
which was occupied by a small French garrison. 
Some of the inhabitants of the town had previously 



6 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

communicated to the officer commanding at Paxo 
that if the British ships would assist them, they 
would rise and overpower the garrison, which they 
accordingly did on the approach of the two frigates, 
and were in possession of the forts before we could 
land any of our people. 

In May we returned to Malta to refit, and while 
there the news came of the abdication of the Em- 
peror Napoleon, and the proclamation of peace with 
France, after a war which had lasted, with one short 
intermission (1802), for twenty-one years. It was 
not, however, our lot to obtain any repose from this 
cessation of hostilities, as our frigate was one of 
those ordered direct to the coast of North America, 
where war still continued with the United States ; 
and we had the mortification to lose our most able 
and highly esteemed Captain, who before this new 
destination was known had given up the command of 
the ship, on account of the state of his health, and 
was on his way to England. On being refitted, we 
proceeded, under the command of the first lieutenant 
(Silas Hood), to Port Mahon, where our new Captain, 
Francis Stanfell, joined us. Thence we proceeded, 
in company with three other frigates, — f Iphegenia,' 
' Eurieuse,' and ' Euryalus ' (the last commanded by 
' Charley' Napier), — to Gibraltar; these took charge 
of convoy carrying a brigade of troops, consisting of 
the 29th and 62nd Eegiments, and some artillery, 
under the command of General Gosselin, proceeding, 
like ourselves, to the coast of America. Touching at 
Santa Cruz in Teneriffe, we reached Bermuda with- 
out any occurrence worthy of note. Here we found 
a large expedition preparing to sail for the Chesa- 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO J 842. 7 

peake ; but ( Furieuse ' and c Bacchante ' were ordered 
on to Halifax with, the troops (29th and 62nd Regi- 
ments) we had convoyed from Gibraltar ; and we 
were soon afterwards attached to the expedition 
under General Sherbrooke and Rear- Admiral Grif- 
fiths, which was to reduce that portion of the 
province of Maine which is situated between the 
river Penobscot and the British frontier. Upon 
the arrival of the expedition off Castine, in the bay 
of Penobscot, the Americans blew up the small fort, 
and our troops took possession of the town and har- 
bour without opposition. The main body of our 
troops, with some of our smaller vessels and boats of 
the squadron, ascended the river to Hampden, where 
the Americans were defeated, a sloop of war (' John 
Adams ') burnt, and a number of merchant vessels 
captured. We, however, did not share actively in 
these proceedings, being detached, with the 29th 
Regiment, to Belfast, on the opposite shore of the 
Penobscot, to occupy that village, and a bridge 
across a river falling there into the bay. 

This post we held till the main portion had been 
completed, when the 29th was re-embarked. We 
then proceeded, in company with the ' Tenedos/ 
Captain Hyde Parker, to Machias, at the entrance to 
the Bay of Fundy, which was also taken possession 
of without resistance. During the autumn we were 
employed cruising off Boston, and captured one fine 
American schooner privateer ; but early in the winter 
we carried away our fore-yard, and wrung the head 
of the fore-mast, in a heavy gale of wind. This 
obliged us to bear up for Bermuda, where we had to 
remain ten weeks refitting ; and we had only just 



8 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

started upon a fresh cruise, in the beginning of 
March, 1815, when we received intelligence of peace 
being proclaimed between England and the United 
States. In May we sailed from Halifax for England, 
in company with three troop ships, having on board 
the 64th Regiment and a battalion of Marines which 
had been employed in Canada. Shortly before 
sailing, a French vessel brought news of the escape 
of Napoleon from Elba and his landing in Erance, 
but with what hope of success was not known. 

On arriving at Spithead June — , we found that he 
was again on the throne of Erance, and had ad- 
vanced to attack the allied English and Prussian 
armies; that a battle had been fought on the 16th 
in which the Prussians had been defeated, that an 
action had taken place on the same day with the 
English, who had subsequently retreated, and that 
every hour news was expected of a decisive battle. All 
this came upon us like a dream, and our anxiety 
was wound up to the highest pitch for some hours, 
when the intelligence came of the glorious day of 
Waterloo ; but the full consequences of that victory 
were not immediately felt ; all possible reinforcements 
were ordered to the Duke of Wellington's army, and 
our friends of the 64th regiment, who had been 
absent from England sixteen years, were imme- 
diately sent off to join it. In a few days we were 
ordered to Ostend to bring over prisoners, but finding 
none ready for embarkation returned to Spithead. 
As we passed Calais the tricolor flag was still flying, 
but on our return had disappeared as we then 
thought for ever. This was 6 Bacchante's ' last ser- 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 179b TO 1842. 9 

vice ; we were ordered into Portsmouth Harbour and 
there paid off. 

During the autumn of this year I accompanied 
your grandfather in his little tour to Paris and 
Brussels, visiting the recent battle-field of Waterloo. 
You will find the account of what we saw, in my 
journal of that tour. 

Captain Stanfell having been appointed to com- 
mand the f Madagascar,' 38, very kindly offered to 
take me with him ; which I accepted, but that ship 
being found defective, the officers and crew were 
transferred to the ' Phaeton/ but I was not destined 
to go to sea in that ship, for Lord Amherst having 
been appointed Ambassador to the Court of China, 
your grandfather thought this an opportunity for me 
to see countries, then almost unknown to Europeans, 
and obtained for me a vacancy in the i Alceste,' 38, 
Captain Murray Maxwell, which was to carry out 
the Ambassador and his suite. I was accordingly 
removed from i Phaeton' to 'Alceste,' in January, 
1816. 

As besides my own MS. journal of this voyage, a 
very amusing account of it was published by Mr. 
Macleod, the surgeon, and "more than one account of 
the proceedings of the embassy has appeared in 
print, 1 I will only say here that we sailed from 
Spithead on February 9th, 1816, in company with the 
c Lyra,' 10, Captain Basil Hall, and the c Hewitt,' 
East Indiaman, carrying the presents for the Em- 
peror of China. After touching at Rio Janeiro, the 

1 Ellis' Account of the Embassy (Abel). Sir John Davis' 2nd 
Sketches of China. Sir George Staunton (printed privately). Captain 
Basil Hall's Loochoo. 



10 MEMORANDA OP MY LIFE. 

Cape of Good Hope, Anjeir in the Straits of Sunda, 
and Batavia, we reached the islands off the mouth 
of the Canton river. Here we were joined by Sir 
George Staunton, and the other gentlemen belong- 
ing to the East India Company's Factory at Canton, 
who were to accompany the embassy, and proceeding 
up the gulf of Pechelee, anchored off the mouth of the 
Peiho river, where the embassy disembarked. Lord 
Amherst having kindly given me a nominal place in 
his suite, I accompanied him to Yuen-min-yuen, and 
on his return through the country to Canton, when 
we arrived at Kwatchoo on the Yang-tse-kiang, and 
were to deviate from the route of Lord Macartney's 
embassy, as I was the only person who had any 
knowledge of marine surveying, I was desired to 
make such a sketch of that great river as circum- 
stances might permit, and in consequence constructed 
the plan which proved useful to our expedition, 
when ascending to Nankin in 1842 ; and this, with 
the subsequent affair of the ' Alceste ' with the forts 
at the Bocca Tigris, turned my attention to that 
mode of invading China, which I subsequently com- 
municated to Government on the breaking out of 
the war in 1840, and which your uncle, Lord Ellen- 
borough, urged on the Admiral and General in 1841, 
and which brought the war to its successful con- 
clusion. During the time I was thus attached to 
the embassy, I received much care and kindness from 
Mr., now Sir Henry Ellis, the secretary to the 
embassy, in whose boat I was during the greater 
part of the journey. We quitted China in January, 
1817, and having touched at Manilla, were proceed- 
ing through the Straits of Gaspar, when on the 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 11 

morning of February 18th, we struck on a sunken 
rock, which proved fatal to poor 'Alceste.' Our 
escape from the island of Pulo Leat, without loss of 
life, was most providential, as if the Malays had 
held their position, the ship which came for us was 
too far off to render substantial assistance to us in 
our embarkation, and we could hardly have fought 
off our way without considerable loss. Our escape 
from destruction by fire on board the ' Ceesar,' 
during the passage between Batavia and the Cape 
of Good Hope, was equally providential; and must 
under Providence be mainly ascribed to the presence 
of mind of the gunner (Holmes) in ascertaining 
the exact spot where to scuttle the deck immediately 
over the fire. At St. Helena I passed my examina- 
tion for lieutenant, and the officers and crew of the 
i Alceste ' having been fully acquitted of all blame 
by the Court Martial held at Portsmouth to enquire 
into her loss, in September 1817, I received my 
commission as a lieutenant. 

On board ' Alceste ' I find I became acquainted with 
Henry Eden and Charles Hope, who were again my 
messmates as lieutenants in the ' Liffey,' and have 
continued among my best friends to this time. Hope, 
alas ! is just taken from us. This may be considered 
as the commencement of a new era in my life, the 
shaking off of boyhood, and the entrance into society 
as a man. I had also found a great change in my 
social position upon my arrival in England, as in the 
spring of the year my father had been obliged, in 
consequence of a serious attack of erysipelas in the 
head, which for some time prevented his taking the 
chair of the House of Commons (and thereby stopped 



12 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

public business), to resign the office of Speaker ; and 
he was immediately created a peer, by the title of 
Baron Colchester ; and a pension of 4,000L a year 
for his own life, and 3,000 1, for that of his successor 
in the title, was voted by the House of Commons, as 
a mark of their sense of his c distinguished conduct ' 
in their chair ; and settled by a special Act of Par- 
liament. Your grandfather had, on quitting the 
House of Commons, gone first to Harrowgate for 
his health, and afterwards to Malvern, where I 
joined the family. In the autumn we made visits in 
Staffordshire, to Mr. Monckton at Somerford, to Lord 
Harrowby at Sandon, to Lord Stafford at Trentham, 
and thence to Dr. Smith (afterwards Dean of Christ 
Church), at Daventry; and then, leaving your uncle, 
Philip Abbot, at Hildersham, with Mr. Blomneld 
(now Bishop of London), whose pupil he was to be 
until he should go to the University, we proceeded to 
Kidbrooke, where we spent the winter, and remained 
till after Easter 1818. Your grandfather having then 
no house in London, we went up after Easter, for a 
few weeks, to Mivart's Hotel, in Lower Brook Street. 
While there, I occupied my morning with masters in 
Italian, drawing, and riding ; and my evenings with 
dinners, balls, and parties ; besides going to see sights, 
or riding in the Park. We returned to Kidbrooke in 
June, and your grandfather thinking, that though a 
few months' relaxation was fair after my adventures 
in the ' Alceste,' the continuance of an idle life was 
not good for a young man, had applied to the Pirst 
Lord of the Admiralty to give me employment afloat. 
In consequence, before the end of June, I received an 
appointment as lieutenant to the ' Liffey,' a fine 



1798 TO 1842. 13 

frigate of 50 guns, just commissioned at Chatham by 
Captain the Hon. Henry Duncan, a younger son of 
Admiral Lord Duncan, who gained the victory of 
Camperdown. 

Upon joining the ship, I found myself second lieu- 
tenant, the senior (Higgs), a lieutenant of thirteen 
years' standing ; and my two juniors, Eden and 
Hope, my old messmates in ' Alceste.' We did not 
leave the Medway till the close of the year, and then 
proceeded to Portsmouth, which was to be nominally 
our station, but we were disposable for any service 
required. In February 1819, we carried to Lisbon 
Lord Beresford, then Commander-in-Chief of the 
Portuguese army ; and then made a cruising voyage 
across the Atlantic to the West Indies, to look out 
for piratical vessels which had of late committed 
many depredations on our merchant ships in those 
latitudes. The first island at which we touched was 
Jamaica, where we anchored for a few days in Port 
Eoyal, and then proceeded to the Havannah, in Cuba, 
from whence we returned to England. On our ar- 
rival, I found that your grandfather and grandmother 
were preparing to set out on a tour of three } r ears to 
the Continent, for the restoration of your grandfather's 
health, which had never been completely re-established 
since 1817 ; and also for the sake of economy. They 
purposed proceeding first to Switzerland, and then to 
winter at Genoa. Your uncle Philip was to accom- 
pany them to Switzerland, and then return to Eng- 
land at the end of the long vacation, to keep his term 
at Oxford, where he was entered as a student of 
Christ Church. During part of the summer the 
' Liffey ' was employed as one of the squadron to 



14 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

attend upon the yacht of the Prince Regent, during 
his cruise about the Isle of Wight. From this ser- 
vice we were one morning unexpectedly detached, on 
the news of riots in Scotland, to carry down to Edin- 
burgh the first battalion of the Rifle Brigade; and 
though no previous notice had been given, the whole 
ba/fctalion was embarked on board 'Liffey' and 'Hind' 
(corvette), and we sailed with them at four o'clock 
the same afternoon. While the ship was in Leith 
Eoads, I had the opportunity of seeing Edinburgh 
and its neighbourhood ; and I also accompanied Cap- 
tain Duncan to the seat of his brother, Lord Duncan, 
situated in a beautiful country on the north side of 
the Tay, between Perth and Dundee. In the spring 
of 1820, the 'Liffey ' was appointed to carry to Peters- 
burg our ambassador, Sir Charles Bagot, which gave 
me an opportunity of seeing that capital, and getting 
a general idea of the Baltic Sea. As we reached the 
Gulf of Finland in the month of June, the days were 
only separated by a short twilight. In autumn, after 
a rumour of going to the East Indies, we were sud- 
denly ordered to complete for foreign service with all 
possible expedition ; and sailed in company with the 
6 Active,' 38, commanded by Sir James Gordon, under 
sealed orders. The first place at which we anchored 
was Cascaes Bay, at the mouth of the Tagus, from 
whence I was dispatched in one of the 'Liffey's' 
boats, and a lieutenant of the ( Active ' (C. Gordon) 
in one of the other boats, to communicate with our 
Court at Lisbon. We started at dusk, and after a 
long row, and a narrow escape from being detained 
by a patrole of Portuguese cavalry, effected the object 
of our orders and returned on board soon after day- 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 15 

light. The frigates immediately weighed, and pro- 
ceeded towards the Mediterranean ; and it was not 
till after we had passed through the Straits of Gibraltar 
that we learnt our destination was Naples, where a 
revolution had broken out in the previous July ; and 
our Minister, Sir William A'Court, had written for 
an additional force, to protect the British interests 
there. We arrived at Naples October — , and I had 
the happiness of finding there your grandfather and 
grandmother, who were purposing to spend the winter 
there. As ' Liffey ' was stationed in the Bay, I was 
able to spend the greater part of the two following 
months on shore with them ; when the political state 
of Naples, threatened with an Austrian invasion, ren- 
dered it, in the opinion of Sir William A'Court, unsafe 
for English travellers to remain there longer, and 
they in consequence removed to Rome. 

In February 1821, 1 received my promotion (dated 
the previous month) to the rank of Commander, and 
an appointment to command the ' Racehorse.' The 
' Liffey ' was about the same time ordered home, the 
presence of an English squadron being no longer re- 
quired. I quitted my messmates with much regret, 
having spent two and a half very pleasant years 
among them. Several changes had taken place 
among them, Higgs having been promoted in 1819, 
and succeeded by Sandom (now Captain Superinten- 
dent of the Victualling Yard at Plymouth) ; and 
Eden, removed (1820) to be Flag Lieutenant to Rear- 
Admiral Sir Graham Moore, Commander-in-Chief in 
the Mediterranean, by Lieutenant Jenkyns ; but they 
were all sensible, good-tempered, gentlemanlike 
men, well-informed in the various departments of 






16 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

their profession, and willing to make all things pass 
smoothly; and we were fortunate in a captain who 
possessed the difficult art of rendering himself agree- 
able to his officers, without ever permitting them to 
forget the respect they owed him as then- chief. 

On March 25th, the day on which the Austrian 
army entered Naples, I sailed in the ' Eacehorse ' for 
Malta, with orders to proceed from thence to the 
Archipelago and visit such parts as I should judge 
fit ; the service of the smaller vessels of war at that 
time sent into the Archipelago having been chiefly to 
carry the mails between Malta and Smyrna ; but a 
new state of affairs was approaching. Before reach- 
ing Malta, however, I was witness to a new revolu- 
tion on a small scale, at Messina, where General 
Rossarol, a Carbonaro, had placed himself at the 
head of an insurrection against the royal authorities, 
and drawn away the governor ; but at the end of a few 
days the troops again changed their minds and Ros- 
sarol had to take refuge on board a British ship of 
war, c Leone,' where at the very moment was a 
Royalist chief (Staette), who when he saw Rossarol 
come on board, supposed his object to be to demand 
his (Staette's) surrender to him. On arriving at Malta, 
we heard the first intelligence of the insurrection of 
the Greeks in Wallachia and in the Morea, which after 
six years of bloodshed and devastation terminated, 
through the interference of France, Russia, and 
England, and their destruction of the Turkish and 
Egyptian fleets at Navarino in October 1827, in the 
establishment of the kingdom of Greece, under a 
Bavarian dynasty. This news hastened my departure 
for the Archipelago, where there was at that time no 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 17 

British, vessel of war ; and on arriving at Snryrna, we 
found the city in much confusion and the * Frank ' 
(or European) merchants in great alarm. After some 
weeks, the alarm having somewhat subsided, I pro- 
ceeded on my proposed cruise, during which I visited 
the plains of Troy, Salonica, the bay and plains of 
Marathon ; Athens, where the Greeks had driven the 
Turks into the Acropolis ; Hydra, the island which 
supplied the naval force to the insurgent Greeks and 
Paros ; my return to Smyrna being hastened by re- 
ports of massacres having taken place there, which,, 
though much exaggerated, had not been altogether 
without foundation. Late in the summer, I visited 
Scala Nova, Alexandria, where I had an interview 
with the celebrated Pacha Mehemet Ali (who from a 
common soldier raised himself to be a powerful 
prince), Larnesa in Cyprus, and Ehodes. At this 
time I first became acquainted with Captain Rowan 
Hamilton, who commanded the ' Cambrian,' and was 
for several years afterwards senior officer of our 
squadron in the Archipelago ; and who ever after- 
wards showed me much kindness. ( At the close of 
the year, ' Racehorse ' having completed her period 
of service, was ordered home ; and was paid off at 
Devonport in Pebruary 1822. 

Your grandfather and grandmother being still 
abroad, after paying a short visit to your uncle at Ox- 
ford, I went to Nice to meet them, as they had spent 
the winter there ; and from Mce I made a short tour 
by the ' Corniche ' road to Genoa, and thence to Turin, 
returning to Mce over the pass of the Col de Tende. 
In April we all quitted Nice and returned to Eng- 
land, visiting on the way Toulon, Marseilles, Msmes, 

c 



18 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

and Paris. Tour grandfather now took the house 
No. 18, Spring Gardens, which he purchased the 
following year, and which was his London residence 
till his death. Your uncle joined us here, having 
taken his bachelor degree at Oxford, with the 
highest honours, being first class both in classics 
and in mathematics. Edward Bouverie Pusey, whose 
name has since become so widely known as the 
denomination of a religious sect, was the companion 
of his studies, and obtained similar honours at the 
same examination. After remaining some weeks in 
London to renew old acquaintances, and set up a 
new establishment of servants, we went down to 
Kidbrooke. In the autumn your uncle was entered 
a student of Lincoln's Inn, and took a set of chambers 
there to study the law, but generally dined in Spring 
Gardens when the family were in London ; and on 
this account your grandfather generally came up in 
November. 

Li April 1823 I was appointed to the i Columbine,' 
18, at Devonport, but, owing to the scarcity of sea- 
men, we were not completely manned till the follow- 
ing September, when we proceeded to Cork to form 
one of the squadron on the Irish station, under the 
orders of Lord Colville. We had, however, bsen 
there scarcely a month, when orders came very unex- 
pectedly from the Admiralty for our proceeding to the 
Mediterranean. We reached Malta, where we found 
the commander-in-chief, Vice- Admiral Sir Graham 
Moore, and were ordered to the Ionian Islands. In 
the month of December we captured a small Greek 
piratical vessel in the Bay of Yathi, and destroyed 
another in the adjoining Bay of Scutari, in the Gulf 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 19 

of Colokythia, and, after an unsuccessful search for 
another in the Bay of Chisamo in Candia, returned 
to Corfu. While there, early in January 1824, the 
Lord High Commissioner, Sir Thomas Maitland, re- 
quested me to visit the Island of Sapienza, at the 
south-west extremity of the Morea, and take with 
me an officer of Engineers, in order to make for him 
a report on the capabilities of the island as a naval 
and military station, as he considered it as a de- 
pendency of the Ionian Islands. I accordingly em- 
barked Major Figg, R.E., and sailed for the island, 
where we found a small but apparently secure 
harbour; and after remaining some days to make 
our surveys, were preparing to return to Corfu, when 
at daybreak in the morning of January 25th, the brig 
parted her cables in a violent squall, and drifted 
upon the rocks, which from their sharpness bored 
through her sides, and she slid off into deep water, 
where she sank. We were thus suddenly left upon 
an uninhabited island, with little more than the 
clothes upon our backs, but thankful that our lives 
were (with two exceptions) saved; and some of our 
boats having escaped, we sent in the afternoon to 
Modon to get some provisions, and hire a vessel to 
take the news of our misfortune to Zante, and obtain 
the means of removing us from the island. We were 
also enabled to make tents with some of the sails ; 
and so remained, till the 6 Alacrity,' commanded by 
my old friend Yorke, now Lord Hardwicke, came to 
our assistance, and carried us first to Zante and then 
to Malta. Here we had to perform quarantine in 
the Lazzaretto, and then, on the arrival of the 
f Martin/ 20, commanded by another old friend, 

c 2 



20 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Henry Eden, we proceeded to join the new com- 
mander-in-chief, Sir Harry Neale, off Algiers, which 
he was blockading in consequence of some dispute 
with the Dey. Here the usual court martial for 
enquiring into the loss of ships of war when wrecked 
was held on board the ' Phaeton ; ' Captain Sturt was 
president of the court. The sentence was ' that the 
captain and master should be reprimanded for not 
having taken sufficient precautions for the security 
of the ship, and the rest of the officers and crew 
were fully acquitted/ On my arrival in England I 
waited upon the Eirst Lord of the Admiralty, and 
the Senior Naval Lord (Sir George Cockburn), and 
had the satisfaction to learn that the sentence was 
considered an unusually severe one, and that it would 
not prevent my being again employed in a short 
time. This promise was fulfilled, for at the close of 
November of the same year, I was appointed to com- 
mand the ' Eose,' 18 (Corvette), at Portsmouth. 
These events, though they made no outward change 
in the successful progress of my professional career, 
weighed deeply on my mind, and made, I trust, a 
beneficial impression ; constant success in whatever I 
had been engaged in (for the wreck of the ' Alceste,' 
though in itself a more serious catastrophe, was to 
me personally an advantage,) had led me to forget 
the possibility of reverses, and to become, perhaps, 
too confident in myself and my good fortune. I had 
now been taught by experience to think more soberly 
Our first cruise in the c Eose ' was in the entrance 
of the Channel, as part of an experimental squadron, 
under the command of Captain Sturt in the 
? Phaeton/ to test the comparative merits of three 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 21 

corvettes, ' Champion,' c Orestes,' and c Pjdades,' 
built by three different constructors, Admiral Hayes, 
Professor Inman, of the Boyal Naval College, and' 
Sir E. Seppings, the surveyor of the navy. We 
sailed in the middle of March, 1825 ; but our cruise 
was cut short by the ' Phaeton ' carrying away her 
bowsprit (an experimental one of iron), which 
obliged us to put into Scilly, and then return to 
Portsmouth, which we reached on the 11th of April. 

I now received orders to proceed to the Mediter- 
ranean, to be again placed under the orders of Sir 
Harry Neale, whom we found at Malta ; and who 
ordered me to the Ionian Islands, under the imme- 
diate command of Captain Pechell, in the c Sybille ;' 
but as I was next in command to him at those 
islands, I was frequently detached, sometimes alone, 
and sometimes having a brig under my orders ; my 
usual cruising ground between Zante and Cerigo 
including the Gulf of Patras. 

In the summer of 1825 I made an examination of 
all the small harbours in the gulf of Kolokythia, 
with the view of ascertaining the haunts of the 
piratical Greek vessels ; and during the autumn and 
winter was frequently off Missolonghi, then besieged 
by the Turks, and saw several skirmishes between 
the Greek and Turkish fleets. 

Early in 1826 I was unexpectedly ordered to Tunis, 
where I received despatches for the Admiral (Sir H. 
Heale), and carried them on to Naples, where he was 
supposed to be, and where he shortly after arrived. 
My next proposed destination was the Archipelago, 
where I should have been under the orders of my old 
friend, Captain Hamilton ; but on going to Malta for 



22 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the Admiral's despatches, I received there, by the 
hands of my old messmate Captain Charles Hope, 
my commission as a post captain. As my successor 
in the command of the ' Rose ' was in the Archi- 
pelago, I had to proceed there, and had reached 
Vourla Bay, where I found Captain Hamilton in the 
6 Cambrian ;' and ' Alacrity,' Captain George Hope 
Johnstone, just starting for England ; and as my 
successor (Lewis Denis) was in a distant part of 
the station, Captain Hamilton placed the senior 
lieutenant in temporary command of the ' Rose,' and 
I proceeded in the ' Alacrity ' as far as Gibraltar, 
and thence in the ' Eden ' to England, which I 
reached in July, 1826. 

Having now attained that rank in the navy beyond 
which promotion goes by seniority, and there being 
nothing in the aspect of public affairs which seemed 
likely to interrupt the peace of Europe, and call for 
the active services of the Navy, I was able to devote 
a longer period to the occupations and amusements 
of life on shore than I could hitherto spare with 
prudence from the duties of my profession ; and it 
was three years and a half from my return to 
England before I again quitted it. 

But although I enjoyed my leisure, I did not give 
up myself to idleness. I read works upon modern 
history and international law, continued my study of 
French and Italian, and took lessons in sketching 
from nature from Bourne, who at this time made the 
book of views of Kidbrooke and its neighbourhood, 
which we still have. 

While in London, I also attended various courses 
of lectures at the Royal Institution. In the summer 






PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 23 

of 1827 I accompanied jour grandfather in Lis tour 
through Scotland to view the Caledonian Canal, and 
the roads, bridges, and churches in the Highlands, 
constructed by the aid of public money under the 
direction of Parliamentary Commissioners, of which 
he had been the chief. "With this principal object, 
we combined various visits to friends, and to places 
worthy of notice. We proceeded first through 
Oxford and Shrewsbury to the great Parliamentary 
road from the latter town to the Menai Straits, and 
viewed the suspension bridge across that strait, by 
Telford, then recently completed. After visiting 
Carnarvon, we proceeded by Conway to Chester, and 
thence to Liverpool, and through the Lakes of West- 
moreland to Carlisle. 

Entering Scotland at Gretna, we proceeded to 
Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Perth, where our Highland 
journey commenced. We stopped one night at Dun- 
keld (the Duke of AthoPs), and then proceeded 
north by the mail road to Inverness, turning aside 
to see Taymouth. The northernmost point of our 
journey was Dunrobin Castle, Lord Stafford's (after- 
wards created Duke of Sutherland), where we stayed 
for several days, and then returned through Dornoch, 
Tain, and Dingwall to Inverness. At each of these 
places your grandfather received addresses from the 
corporations, conferring on him the freedom of the 
borough, as a mark of their sense of the benefit con- 
ferred on the country by the public works constructed 
under his commissions ; and at Dingwall a public 
breakfast (such as is to be met with only in Scotland) 
was given to him by the magistrates and heritors of 
the county. I, as his satellite, shared in all these 



•24 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

honours . From Inverness we proceeded along the 
line of the Caledonian Canal, through the pass of 
Glencoe, and over Eannoch Muir to Inverary. From 
thence we made a trip by steam to Islay, Iona, and 
Staffa. After spending some days with Mr. Camp- 
bell at Islay, we returned to Inverary, and thence 
continued our journey by the pass of Glencoe, Loch 
Lomond, and Dumbarton, to Buchanan, the Duke of 
Montrose's. From Buchanan we continued through 
Stirling to Callender. From thence we visited the 
scenery of the ' Lady of the Lake/ Loch Achray, 
the Trosachs, and Loch Katrine. From Callender 
we made a circuit round Loch Erne to Perth, and 
thence returned to Edinburgh; we made visits to 
the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick, the Duke 
of Newcastle at Clumber, and Lord Manners at 
Thoresby, and Lord Salisbury at Hatfield ; and ter- 
minated our travels at Kidbrooke, where we found 
your grandmother, who during our absence had been 
staying at Wimpole with her old friends, Lord and 
Lady Hardwicke. 

I should have mentioned that your uncle having 
in 1826 finished his course of legal education, by 
studying one year under a conveyancer (Mr. Senior), 
a second under a special pleader (Mr. Blick), and a 
third year under a chancery draughtsman (Mr. Pem- 
berton), was in that year called to the bar, and com- 
menced practising at the Chancery bar, and going 
the Oxford and Chester circuits. 

In the autumn of 1828 your grandfather had a 
return of his old complaint, erysipelas, which ulti- 
mately proved fatal to him, though to the last day 
the physicians held out confident expectations of an 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 25 

ultimate though tedious recovery. The attack was 
first brought on by a chill, the consequence of being 
caught in a snow shower while riding over to Mares- 
field ; and, though he got so much better as to walk 
on a sunny day under the shelter of the south-wing, 
he felt so much worse for it as not to attempt to quit 
the house again till he went up to London. When 
Parliament met, however, he continued to go down 
to the House of Lords, and on one occasion made a 
short speech on presenting petitions against the ad- 
mission of Roman Catholics to seats in Parliament, 
a question which greatly agitated the public mind at 
that moment; and by causing great anxiety to your 
grandfather, who had always opposed such a measure 
as dangerous to the Protestant constitution of these 
realms, tended to aggravate the malady under which 
he was labouring. This question of ' Catholic Eman- 
cipation,' as it was popularly termed, had been the 
subject of eager discussion, both in Parliament and 
by the press, ever since the union with Ireland in 
1800. When Mr. Pitt wished to remove the political 
disabilities under which the Roman Catholics la- 
boured, who were excluded not only from Parliament, 
but from every other situation under government, by 
the requirement of taking oaths of allegiance and 
supremacy, which deny the authority temporal or 
spiritual of the pope within these realms, King 
George III. considering any such admission of c Pa- 
pists ' to power as a violation of his coronation oath, 
refused to listen to any such proposition, and Mr. 
Pitt in consequence resigned office. In 1807 an 
attempt of the government of Lord Grenville and 
Lord Grey to bring forward the subject led to their 



26 MEMOKANDA OF MY LIFE. 

dismissal; but in 1812 the reins of government hav- 
ing passed into the hands of the Prince of Wales, as 
Prince Regent, the question was brought forward 
by the Opposition in the House of Commons, and a 
resolution carried for bringing in a bill during the 
following session. In the May of 1812 the Prime 
Minister, Spencer Percival, fell by the hand of an 
assassin, and his successor, Lord Liverpool, though 
an opposer of those claims, found it necessary in 
forming his administration to leave this an 6 open 
question,' that is, that each member of the Govern- 
ment might vote on it as he pleased. In 1813 a 
bill was brought into the House of Commons in con- 
formity with the resolution of the previous session, 
and the second reading passed by a large majority ; 
but in the Committee, upon the clause for admitting 
Roman Catholics into parliament, your grandfather 
rose to oppose it, ' and, while he admitted the fair 
claim of the Roman Catholics to offices of mere 
honour or emolument, argued so forcibly the danger 
to the Constitution of admitting to political power 
persons who held a divided allegiance between their 
temporal sovereign and their spiritual sovereign, 
the latter moreover being a foreign temporal prince, 
and claiming as universal head of the Church para- 
mount jurisdiction over all its members ; ' that on 
the division, the clause was negatived by a majority 
of four votes, and the promoters of the bill having 
thus failed in their principal object, dropped its 
further progress. This defeat retarded the advance 
of the question for some years, but after your grand- 
father had quitted the House of Commons, it was 
again brought forward, and having the support of 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 27 

Lord Castlereagh the leader of the House, and of 
Canning and Plunket, two of its most brilliant 
orators, it passed the House on more than one 
occasion, but was always rejected in the House of 
Lords, the strongly avowed opposition of the Duke 
of York, the heir presumptive to the throne, adding 
much to the strength of its opponents. In the 
winter of 1826 the Duke of York died, and in the 
following February (1827) Lord Liverpool was seized 
with a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the 
power of any longer taking part in political affairs. 
This event completely broke up the Government, as 
the Chancellor (Lord Eldon), the Duke of Welling- 
ton, Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Peel, and four other 
Cabinet ministers, refused to serve under Mr. Can- 
ning, whom the King had sent for to form a govern- 
ment. Canning was therefore obliged to strengthen 
his government by the admission of Lord Lansdowne 
and others of the moderate Whigs ; but he himself 
died in the following August, and was succeeded by 
Lord Goderich (now Earl of Ripon), who proved so 
unable to control the discordant elements of his ad- 
ministration, that it fell to pieces before the close of 
the year, without ever meeting parliament. The 
Duke of Wellington was then called on to form a 
government, which he at once did, placing Mr. Peel 
as leader in the House of Commons. In this govern- 
ment your uncle, Lord Ellenborough, took office as 
Keeper of the Privy Seal, which post he exchanged 
soon afterwards for President of the Board of Con- 
trol. Although both the Duke of Wellington and 
Mr. Peel had been opposers of the Roman Catholic 
claims (Mr. Peel the most strenuous opposer), yet a 



28 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

vague suspicion now arose that they meant to yield 
to Irish clamour and agitation l that which they 
had refused to the arguments adduced in its favour. 
As the meeting of parliament approached it became 
certain that Roman Catholic emancipation would be 
brought forward as a Government measure, and indi- 
viduals of the highest character and position in the 
country, who had hitherto always opposed such a 
measure, were named as being now prepared to sup- 
port the Government upon it, without any good 
grounds being assigned for such sudden concession. 
All this weighed heavily on your grandfather's 
spirits, aggravated by the feeling that his illness 
prevented him from taking so active a part as he 
wished in opposing so hazardous a measure. 

As the best means in his power to recall the public 
mind to a right view of the question, he published a 
corrected edition of his parliamentary speeches, with 
notes and an introduction, showing what concessions 
might be made consistent with the principle of po- 
litical exclusion, and what should be unhesitatingly 
resisted. The measure as surmised, recommended 
by the speech from the throne at the opening of the 
session of 1829, passed quickly through the House of 
Commons ; and after long and warm debates in the 
House of Lords, it passed that house also by a large 
majority, and received the Royal assent before Easter, 
being, as was admitted at the time, contrary to the 
wishes of the people of England, and, as has since 

1 The result of the election for the county of Clare, when the Go- 
vernment candidate, Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald (afterwards Lord Fitzgerald), 
was beaten by Mr. O'Connell, a Eoman Catholic, and consequently dis- 
qualified to sit, was said to have much contributed to this change. 






PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 29 

been ascertained, contrary to the wishes of the king 
himself. 

Your grandfather just lived to see this great 
change in our Constitution; the erysipelas, which 
first appeared in the arms and legs, spread to various 
parts of the body, causing very painful irritation, and 
at last suddenly attacked some vital part ; and he ex- 
pired, almost without a groan, on the night of May 7th. 
From March 20th, he had been confined to the bed- 
room floor, but never to his bed. The very last 
evening we had all been sitting with him, reading 
Froissart's Chronicles, in which he took a part. At 
ten o'clock, the medical men came as usual, but saw 
no change ; and your uncle and myself went to a ball 
from which we were summoned home, and before we 
could arrive all was over. 

I was thus unexpectedly deprived of my excel- 
lent and revered father, and left to maintain with 
feebler powers the reputation which he had earned 
for our name, and the position in society to which by 
his virtues and his abilities he had raised his family. 
I was at the time in the expectation of an early ap- 
pointment to a ship, and therefore determined im- 
mediately to let Kidbrooke, during the probable 
period of my absence. Accordingly, after the funeral 
of your grandfather, which took place in Westminster 
Abbey, I took my seat in the House of Lords ; and 
we then went down to Kidbrooke to put it in order 
for letting, and then returned to London to carry out 
all the arrangements, and transact the law business 
always attendant upon the decease of the head of the 
family. In October I received my appointment to 
command the ' Yolage,' a small frigate of twenty- 



30 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

eight guns, then at Portsmouth, and destined for the 
South American station. By Christmas we were 
ready for sea, and on December 28th, we sailed from 
Spit he ad for our station. 

On the 31st of the same month, your uncle was 
married to Miss Fanny Talbot, a younger daughter 
of Dr. Talbot, Dean of Salisbury, and Lady Elizabeth, 
a sister of the then Duke of Beaufort. It was settled 
they should live with my mother, who with that view 
took a house in Montague Place, Bedford Square, the 
quarter in which lawyers chiefly reside ; and the 
lease of the house in Spring Gardens was sold. Kid- 
brooke was let in the following summer for three 
years to a Mr. Calvert Clarke. 

After touching at Madeira, I proceeded to Eio 
Janeiro, where we found the Commander-in-Chief of 
the station, Rear- Admiral Baker ; and after refitting, 
we were sent in the month of April, to cruise along 
the coast of Brazil from Bahia to Cape St. Eoque, 
the north-east point of Brazil, in search of vessels 
employed in the African slave trade. We remained 
on that station till August, visiting occasionally the 
cities of Bahia and Pernambuco, and the smaller 
ports of Maceio and Tamandare, but did not fall in 
with any of the objects of our search. While at 
Pernambuco, my old friend Captain Hamilton came 
to the station, in command of the 'Druid,' 46. Our 
next service was on the river Plate, where we were 
stationed from November 1830, till March 1831 ; re- 
maining chiefly at anchor off Buenos Ayres, but 
visiting occasionally Monte Yideo, and once Mal- 
donado, on the left bank of the river Plate, near its 
mouth, and the only sheltered anchorage for large 






PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 31 

ships in the river. During this period I visited the 
Presidents of the two republics, Don Manuel Eosas, 
of Buenos Ayres, and Don Fructuoso Rivera, of the 
Uruguay. I also made two or three excursions in- 
land, one of them to an establishment for making 
jerked beef (Charquir) on the banks of the little river 
St. Lucia. In April 1831, we returned to Eio 
Janeiro, and were preparing to proceed to the Pacific 
Ocean, when the revolution broke out, which in less 
than twenty-four hours terminated in the abdication 
of the Emperor Don Pedro I. in favour of his son. 
Don Pedro having requested of the Admiral a ship 
to convey himself and his Empress to Europe, the 
6 Yolage ' was appointed for that service, and a 
French frigate, to convey the young Queen of 
Portugal, Donna Maria de Gloria, who was residing 
with her father, her kingdom having been usurped 
by her uncle Don Miguel. As soon as the necessary 
preparations could be made, we embarked our illus- 
trious passengers and their suite ; and after touch- 
ing at Fayal, one of the Azores, for supplies, landed 
them safely at Cherbourg, after a passage of sixty 
days. The Empress was an extremely agreeable 
person, and bore the discomforts to which she was 
unavoidably exposed with wonderful cheerfulness and 
good humour ; the Emperor also bore his reverse of 
fortune with great equanimity. Had he remained on 
board a ship at Eio Janeiro without abdicating, till 
his friends had time to collect forces, it was thought 
by many persons that he would have been able to 
have suppressed the insurrection ; but he said from 
the first moment, that he would never shed the 
blood of his people. His behaviour at Fayal, when 






32 MEMOEANDA OF MY LIFE. 

lie feared I intended to seize the British vessels em- 
ployed in carrying the troops of his daughter, Donna 
Maria, showed his deep affection for his children ; and 
his subsequent conduct towards myself proved that, 
though hasty in temper, he was ready on reflection 
to give due credit to the motives of others, though 
they thwarted his own wishes. Before quitting the 
ship, he presented me in his own name, and that of 
the Empress, with a diamond ring, worn by the Kings 
of Portugal, and a gold snuff-box with the Empress's 
initial ; and gave a silver snuff-box to each of the 
gun-room officers ; and a sum of money to be distri- 
buted among the crew. As a further proof that his 
satisfaction with the treatment he received on board 
' Yolage ' was not evanescent, in 1833, when Don 
Miguel was driven from Portugal, and he carried on 
the government as Regent for his daughter, he sent 
me in her name the insignia of Knight Commander 
of the Order of the Tower and Sword ; but the regu- 
lations of our Government only permitting such 
decorations to be received for services actually against 
the enemy, I was obliged to decline them, with many 
expressions of gratitude. You will find the corre- 
spondence on this subject, with the Portuguese Minis- 
ter in London, among my papers. 

Prom Cherbourg we proceeded to Spithead ; and, 
after refitting, returned to our station in South 
America. I took advantage of this opportunity to 
pay a visit of a few days to my mother in London, 
and also to take my seat in the new Parliament then 
just assembled. At this moment all England was 
agitated, from one end to the other, by the cry of 
Parliamentary Eeform, and a great change had taken 



1798 TO 1842. 33 

place in the condition of political parties since 
Christmas 1830. King George the Fourth died June 
1830, and was succeeded by his next surviving bro- 
ther, the Duke of Clarence, as William the Fourth. 
The new king retained the Duke of Wellington as 
his Prime Minister ; but as it is required by the Con- 
stitution that a new Parliament must be assembled 
within six months after a demise of the Crown, a dis- 
solution of the existing Parliament necessarily took 
place. Several constituencies determined to avail 
themselves of this opportunity of showing their dis- 
satisfaction with their representatives, who had voted 
in favour of Roman Catholic emancipation, by turn- 
ing them out, and replacing them by others of^ 
opposite opinions on that subject. Another event 
also diminished the number of the supporters of 
government returned to the new Parliament. The 
French revolution of 1830 took place while our elec- 
tions were proceeding; and that triumph of the 
masses of the people over the constituted authori-^ 
ties emboldened the Radical party on this side the 
Channel, and led to a larger infusion of Radicals into 
the new Parliament ; and a cry for a reform of the 
House of Commons itself, in which some of different 
views were led to join, irritated at the influence used 
by the patrons of some boroughs over their nominees 
at the time of the Emancipation Bill. From these 
causes, upon the first division which took place in 
the House of Commons, on a question relating to the 
civil list for the new sovereign, the Duke of Welling- 
ton's government found themselves in a minority of 
nineteen votes. The next day the ministers resigned, 
and a new ministry was formed by Lord Grey, the 

D 



34 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

greater leaders of the Whig party including Lord 
Lansdowne, and some of the friends of the late Mr. 
Canning, as Lords Bipon and Palrnerston. Lord 
Althorp was made Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Sir 
James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty ; and Mr. 
Henry Brougham, a man of untiring activity and 
great oratorical powers, was made Lord Chancellor, 
and raised to the peerage as Lord Brougham and 
Vaux. When Parliament met in the beginning of 
1831, the new government brought in the bill for 
reforming the House of Commons, which astounded 
both friend and foe by its sweeping changes. The 
second reading was carried by a majority of one vote. 
fc Parliament was then again dissolved, and the new 
one had just met as I arrived in England. The 
struggle continued till the middle of the following 
year, when the Reform Bill, a good deal altered in 
detail after its first appearance, finally passed ; but I 
took no part, beyond giving my vote against it by 
'proxy. 

I this time touched on my outward voyage at 
TenerhTe, and made a tour across the island from 
Santa Cruz to Oratava. At Rio Janeiro I found 
Hamilton in the ' Druid,' and Charles Hope in the 
< Tyne.' 

On September 23rd, I sailed from Rio for Buenos 
Ayres and the Pacific, having on board Mr. Fox, our 
Minister to the Argentine Republic ; and his Secre- 
tary of Legation, Mr. Gore (now Earl of Arran) . We 
touched at the beautiful Island of St. Catherine, on 
our way to the River Plate ; and having landed my 
passengers at Buenos Ayres, I finally quitted that 
river on October 21st. On November 5th, we passed 



, 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 35 

through the Straits of Le Maire ; and on the two 
following days Cape Horn was in sight. From the 
8th to the 19th, we encountered much bad weather, 
with frost and snow ; on the latter day we were in 
lat. 61° 32' S., and long. 75° V W., when a change 
in the wind enabled us to again pursue a northerly 
course ; but on the 22nd a most violent gale came on 
suddenly, the worst weather during our whole pass- 
age ; it moderated again before the close of the day, 
and we were able to pursue our course, but we did 
not make the Island of Mocha till December 9th. The 
following day we entered the Bay of Conception, and 
anchored opposite to the town of Talcahuana. After 
remaining a few days at this anchorage, we proceeded 
to Valparaiso, the head quarters of our naval force 
in the Pacific, where we found Captain (now Earl) 
Waldegrave, the senior officer of the squadron. Our 
stay in the Pacific did not exceed six months, during 
which time I visited the Island of Juan Fernandez ; 
and the ports of Coquimbo, in Chili ; Cobija, in Bo- 
livia ; and Arica and Islay, in Peru. From each of 
these places I made such excursions into the interior 
as time permitted. The two principal journeys were 
one from Valparaiso to Santiago, the capital of Chili, 
situated in a plain about thirty Spanish leagues from 
the coast, and 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. 
While there I dined with the President of the Re- 
public, Don Joaquim Prieto 5 and returned to Valpa- 
raiso by a circuitous route over the Pass of Chacabuco 
into the valley of the Aconcagua, and followed the 
course of that river to Quillota. -The second from 
Islay to Arequipa, a city older than the invasion of 
Peru by Pizarro. It stands in a vast plain 7,000 feet 






36 MEMOEAXDA OF MY LIFE. 

above tlie level of the sea, and is backed by a fine 
conical volcano rising 10,000 feet above the plain, 
and flanked by other masses of the snowy Cordillera. 
Having collected at these different ports the gold and 
silver remitted to England by the merchants in pay- 
ment for the cargoes imported by them to those conn- 
tries, we finally sailed from Coqnimbo on Jnne 12th, 
1832, crossed the meridian of Cape Horn on July 5th, 
and arrived at Rio Janeiro on the 28th, not having 
seen any land dnring the interval, except a transient 
glimpse of the Island of Mas-a-faero, on Jnne 18th. 

We sailed from Eio Janeiro on Angnst 5th, anchored 
for a few honrs off Pernainbuco on the 30th, and 
reached old England on October 5th, anchoring at 
Spithead on the morning of the 6th. As the 6 Yolage ' 
had now completed within a few days the nsnal period 
of three years' service, we had expected that she would 
be paid off immediately, bnt political events had oc- 
curred which kept ns in active employment for a short 
time longer. The French Revolution of 1830 had 
been speedily followed by an insurrection of those 
provinces of the kingdom of Holland which had pre- 
viously formed the Austrian Netherlands. The 
insurgents succeeded in driving out the Dutch troops, 
and declared themselves an independent State, under 
the name of Belgium. The King of Holland, how- 
ever, still held the citadel of Antwerp, and would 
probably have recovered the insurgent provinces, had 
not England and France interfered in their favour, 
and declared for the erection of these provinces into 
a kingdom, of which Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, 
the widower of the Princess Charlotte of England, 
should be chosen king. The King of Holland, how- 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 37 

ever, still demurring to this arrangement, France and 
England determined to enforce their opinion by arms, 
and a French army was assembled to besiege the 
citadel of Antwerp, while a combined squadron 
should cruise in the North Sea, to seize and detain 
all Dutch merchant vessels, and prevent their ships 
of war putting to sea. The English squadron to be 
employed for this purpose was placed under the 
command of Yice-Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm ; 
and as there were no disposable ships on the home 
station, every ship fitting out or returning from 
abroad was appropriated for this service, and among 
the rest 6 Volage.' By this means a squadron of 
four sail of the line, five frigates, and a number of 
sloops of war, and two steamers (steam being only 
then newly introduced as a locomotive power for 
ships), was collected in the beginning of November, 
and was joined by a French squadron, under Kear- 
Admiral Yilleneuve Ducorest, the whole to rendez- 
vous in the Downs. ' Yolage ' and ' Conway,' 28, 
commanded by Henry Eden, sailed together from 
Spithead on November 6th, and joined the Admiral 
in the Downs. The same day we received the notifi- 
cation of the embargo to be laid on all Dutch vessels. 
A few days afterwards c Yolage ' was ordered to pro- 
ceed off the Texel, and we remained on that station 
till December 23rd, during the earlier portion of the 
time being under the orders of Lord John Hay in the 
6 Castor/ and from December 6th, being myself in 
command with two sloops of war under my orders. 
On the 23rd I was relieved by Eden in the c Conway,' 
and arrived in the Downs on the night of the 28th. 
The intelligence of the surrender of the citadel of 



36 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Antwerp had been received, and a reduction of the 
squadron was in consequence expected. On Janu- 
ary 1st, 1833, the orders arrived for the ' Volage ' to 
be paid off at Portsmouth. We sailed for that place 
the same afternoon, and on the 15th, the ship having 
been stripped, and her stores returned to the dock- 
yard, the crew were paid their wages, and ' Yolage ' 
was put out of commission. 

Here terminated my career of active service in the 
navy ; not that I so considered at the time, but not 
being called upon to serve, and no events occurring, 
for several years, which required me to offer my 
services, my attention became gradually turned to 
politics and to the cares of a family, so that when, in 
1847, it was intimated to me privately that I should, 
if I wished it, be appointed to the command of a line 
of battle ship, I replied that, though ready to serve 
whenever called upon officially, as a matter of private 
convenience I should prefer at that time to continue 
attending to my duties in Parliament. In conse- 
quence I received no appointment, and when, in 
course of time, I arrived by seniority at my turn of 
promotion to the rank of Rear- Admiral, I had not 
commanded a ship the number of years required to 
place me on the ' active list,' and was consequently 
placed on the 6 reserved list. 5 

The commencement of 1833 thus formed another 
epoch in my life, the details of which I may at some 
future day commit to writing for you. At present, I 
will only add, that in the summer of 1833, Kidbrooke 
came again into my hands, and was my usual abode 
during the autumn and winter. "While Parliament 
was sitting I resided with my mother at her house 



PERSONAL NARRATIVE, 1798 TO 1842. 39 

in Montague Place. In January 1835 I had the 
misfortune to lose my only brother, your uncle Philip 
Abbot, who died of scarlet fever after a few days' 
illness, leaving* behind him two little children, your 
cousins : Charles, born in 1832, and Henrietta, born 
only eight days before her father's death, and herself 
now no more. In August 1835 I was engaged to 
your dear and excellent mother, and our marriage 
took place on February 3rd, 1836. In the autumn 
of 1837, we purchased the lease of 8, Great Cumber- 
land Place, and divided our time between that and 
Kidbrooke, making occasional visits to your uncle 
Ellenborough at Southam, till his departure for India 
in 1841. In 1840 we went to the baths at Ems for 
your mother's health, and afterwards extended our 
tour to Switzerland. 

On February 13th, 1842, soon after five o'clock in 
the morning, was born a little boy, who the same 
evening was baptised by the name of Reginald Charles 
Edward, and for whose information and amusement 
these recollections of his own earlier life are written 
by his affectionate father 

COLCHESTEE. 
December 1st, 1854. 



END OF PART THE FIRST. 






40 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 



PAET II. 

[1833 to 1852 inclusive.] 

INTRODUCTION. 

This continuation of my memoirs consists more of 
a sketch of political events and parliamentary discus- 
sions, in which I was, by my position, an humble 
partaker, than a narrative of personal adventure or 
individual action ; but may give some idea, though 
necessarily an imperfect one, of the domestic policy 
and party struggles from the meeting of the first re- 
formed Parliament to the resignation of Lord Derby's 
first ministry — a period of twenty years, marked by 
such important changes in the Constitutional and 
commercial history of the country. 



At the period when the c Yolage ' was paid off, 
January 1833, Kidbrooke was still let to Mr. Calvert 
Clarke, and as then there was no probability of my 
being called upon to serve afloat for some years, I 
determined to commence a regular attendance upon 
my parliamentary duties in the House of Lords ; and 
with that view accepted my mother's offer to reside 
with her during the session at the house which she 
had taken in Montague Place, Russell Square ; which 
locality she had chosen on leaving Spring G-ardens, 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 41 

on account of its vicinity to Lincoln's Inn, where my 
brother (who was living with her with his wife and 
little boy) had his law chambers. The opening of 
the Parliamentary Session was a moment of intense 
political interest, being the first meeting of the 
House of Commons elected by the new constituen- 
cies created by the Act popularly known as the ' Re- 
form Bill/ an Act which had swept away all the 
smaller boroughs returning members to Parliament 
where a constituency of 300 voters, occupying houses 
to the annual value of 10?., could not be found, and sub- 
stituting this uniform qualification for voters instead 
of the various ones which had previously existed, in 
those boroughs which remained. Representatives 
had also been given to several large towns not before 
possessing them ; and a considerable alteration was 
made in the qualification for counties by admitting 
copyholders, leaseholders, and even tenants at will of 
50L a year, to have votes ; a considerable number of 
additional county members were created, by dividing 
the larger counties and giving two members to each 
division. 

From these changes most important results were 
expected by all parties; the promoters of the bill 
predicting as its results a new era of public pros- 
perity and enlightened government ; while its oppo- 
nents looked on it as the first step to the subversion 
of all our time-honoured institutions, and consequent 
misery and confusion. 

The minister who had carried through this impor- 
tant measure, and was now to guide its working, was 
Charles Earl Grey, a veteran statesman of the Whig 
school, who had held high office in the government 



42 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

of Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox in 1806, and in his 
youth had been an admirer of the French Revolu- 
tionists of 1793; but it was thought that age and 
experience had moderated his political views ; and 
his own idea of his Reform Bill, as he one day told 
Lord Sidmouth in the House of Lords (as related to 
me by Lord S.), was, that in ten years' time it would 
be accused of being too aristocratic. His colleagues 
of the old Whig party were Lord Lansdowne (who 
had been Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1806), Lord 
Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of 
the House of Commons ; Lord Brougham (Lord 
Chancellor), and Lord Durham; the two latter being 
of the more democratic section of the Whigs ; Lord 
Goderich (afterwards Earl of Ripon), Secretary of 
State for the Colonies ; and Lord Palmer st on, Secre- 
tary for Foreign Affairs, were of the party of the late 
Mr. Canning. Lord John Russell, and Mr. Edward 
Stanley (now Lord Derby), held offices not in the 
Cabinet. The leaders of the opposition were the 
Duke of Wellington, with Lords Lyndhurst and 
Ellenborough in the House of Lords ; and Sir Robert 
Peel in the House of Commons, where the Conserva- 
tive party, as it now began to be called, could not 
muster more than 130 or 140 votes ; but though the 
majority of the Government, as against this party, 
was now overwhelming, it was composed of materials 
which before long proved very troublesome ; as, be- 
sides the regular supporters of the minister, it con- 
tained many English and Scotch Radicals, and a 
band of more than forty Irish members, returned 
through the influence of the Roman Catholic priests, 
and under the complete control of Daniel O'Connell, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 43 

a Eoman Catholic barrister, who, by his successful 
exertions in favour of Roman Catholic emancipation, 
had gained snch an influence over the lower orders 
of his countrymen, as to wield them at his will. He 
was a man of great audacity and considerable elo- 
quence, especially of that sort which influences bodies 
of uneducated men, by appealing to their passions 
and their feelings. The objects which he from this 
time, to the day of his death, held out to his fellow 
Eoman Catholics, were the destruction of the Protes- 
tant Established Church in Ireland, and the repeal of 
the union with England. 

Having been absent from England during the 
whole discussion upon the Reform Bill, which had 
created great party and personal bitterness, I was 
prepared, although I had voted by proxy against the 
second reading, to give the Ministers a fair trial 
under the new system, and accordingly took my seat 
on the cross benches ; but the measures introduced, 
and the language used by the Government, induced 
me gradually to fight under the banners of the Duke 
of Wellington. 

Among the principal measures carried through 
Parliament by Lord Grey's Government in the ses- 
sions of 1833 and 1834, was the Act for the renewal 
of the Charter of the East India Company, which 
was about to expire. By the new charter, the trade 
to China was thrown open, and the Company ceased 
to act as merchants, remaining simply as trustees for 
the Crown, and for the government of India ; a super- 
intendent of trade, appointed by the Crown, was to 
manage our affairs at Canton ; but as the Act did not 
give this officer sufficient control over our merchants 



44 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

in China, and proper steps were not taken to secure 
the recognition of his authority by the Chinese go- 
vernment before he entered upon the duties of his 
office, a state of things ensued which led to numerous 
controversies with the Chinese local authorities, and 
ultimately to a war. An Act for the abolition of 
slavery in the British West Indies was also passed 
after much controversy, the chief difficulty being to 
award a just compensation to the planter for the loss 
of the services of his slaves, without whose compul- 
sory labour, it was alleged, the production of sugar 
could not be carried on in competition with the slave 
labour of the other countries. A sum of twenty 
millions was ultimately granted. The Act for amend- 
ing the Poor Laws was carried in 1834, after very 
great opposition; the provisions were so stringent 
that they have never been strictly carried out ; but 
the substitution of boards of guardians as the me- 
dium of granting relief to the poor, (under the general 
supervision of a board in London, to ensure uniformity 
of action, for the former system, through overseers 
and vestries, with appeal to magistrates in petty 
sessions,) has been a great improvement, checking 
profuse expenditure, while the really deserving object 
is more certain of receiving proper relief. Another 
Act, called the 'Irish Church Temporalities Bill,' 
was passed, by which the number of Protestant 
Archbishops in Ireland was reduced from four to 
two, and ten bishoprics were annihilated, being 
merged in other sees on the decease of the existing 
prelates. A Bill for altering the Tithe Law in Ire- 
land was also brought in, but in its progress through 
the House of Commons, amendments were inserted in 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 45 

it which caused a partial change in the Government, 
and the ultimate defeat of the Bill upon its second 
reading in the House of Lords. The history of this 
change, as related to me by Mr. Granville Vernon 
(then M.P. for Notts), was this : ' When the Bill was 
to go into committee, O'Connell gave notice of an 
amendment enacting that after sufficient provision 
should be made for the incumbents of parishes, the 
surplus of the tithes should be applied to purposes of 
general utility. This spoliation of church property 
the Government at -first resolved to oppose ; but on 
the last day on which the amendments were to be 
moved, it was rumoured that the Conservative party 
in the House of Commons meant, by taking advan- 
tage of the mode in which the question is put, to 
vote with O'Connell against the main question, and 
then against him on his amendment, so as to get rid 
of the Bill altogether. 5 

This was made known to the Cabinet while it was 
deliberating by one of its members, Mr. Edward 
Ellice, who added that, if carried out, the combined 
parties of the Opposition would outvote the Govern- 
ment. On this Lord Grey, supported by the more 
democratic portion of the Cabinet, decided to adopt 
O'Connell's amendment rather than suffer a defeat 
in the House of Commons ; and in consequence four 
members of the Cabinet — the Duke of Richmond, 
Lord Eipon, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Stanley — 
gave in their resignations. 

It appears, after all, that the information of Mr. 
Ellice was not correct. Such a project as he stated 
had been started ; but, on application to the Speaker 
(Sir C. Manners Sutton), he had objected to it as an 



46 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

abuse of the forms of the House, and the idea had 
been abandoned and exertions made to apprise the 
Ministry of it, Mr. Grenville Yernon himself having 
been desired, both by the Speaker and by Sir Henry 
Hardinge, to inform Mr. Stanley, who had charge of 
the Bill, as soon as he came down to the House, that 
the Conservatives would not support O'Connell. But 
it was too late, as when Mr. Stanley appeared it was 
only to announce that he was no longer a member of 
the Government. This occurred early in May, 1834 ; 
and before the end of the session Lord Grey himself 
resigned his office. 

No public reason was ever given for this unexpected 
event ; but it was surmised to have been caused by 
disgust at the dissensions in the Cabinet, and the 
discovery that the Irish Government had been 
negotiating with O'Connell without his knowledge. 

Lord Grey was succeeded as Prime Minister by 
Viscount Melbourne, who previously held the office 
of Secretary of State for the Home Department. 
Lord Melbourne had been in politics a very moderate 
Whig, having even held office under the Adminis- 
tration of the Duke of Wellington, in 1828, as Chief 
Secretary for Ireland. He was a man of good educa- 
tion and much experience in public life, but had the 
reputation of being indolent, and more fond of 
fashionable society than comported with strict morals 
or the severe labours of a statesman. His capacity 
as Prime Minister was not, however, as yet to be put 
to a severe trial; for in the course of the autumn 
Lord Althorpe, by the death of his father, became 
Earl Spencer, and by his consequent removal to the 
House of Lords had to resign his office of Chancellor 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 47 

of the Exchequer and leader of the Government in 
the House of Commons. 

It was not considered by the public that Lord 
Melbourne would find much difficulty in filling up 
these offices ; but when he went down to Brighton 
to submit to King William the Fourth the appoint- 
ments he proposed, His Majesty informed him that 
he considered the loss of Lord Althorpe's services in 
the House of Commons as destructive to the whole 
Ministry, and that he should send for the Duke of 
Wellington to take his advice upon the construction 
of a new one. Thus the Whigs, to their joint sur- 
prise and dismay, found themselves turned bodily 
out of office within two years from the time when, 
having carried the Reform Bill, they considered that 
they had crushed their political opponents, and 
secured office to their own party for a generation to 
come. 

During these two sessions of Parliament I 
attended regularly to the business of the House of 
Lords, both ' committees upstairs,' as they were 
called, and the debates in the House itself; but, so 
far as I recollect, only spoke on three occasions, and 
then shortly. My first essay was upon the occasion 
of a Bill relating to the custom laws, when I advo- 
cated the restoration of the heavy penalty previously 
inflicted on merchant vessels for wearing the ensigns 
and pendants appropriated to vessels of the Eoyal 
Navy, showing that this was done not merely from 
vanity, but to cover fraudulent purposes, as, by 
assuming the character of ships of war, they escaped 
the detention and examination they would otherwise 
undergo from foreign authorities ; and illustrated it 



48 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

by an example of what had lately occurred in the 
river Douro, when an English vessel, laden with war- 
like stores for the garrison of Oporto, had been per- 
mitted as a ship of war to pass the forts at the 
entrance of the river, then held by the adverse party ; 
who, afterwards being apprised of the trick played 
on them, fired upon a real English vessel of war to 
compel her to stop and snbmit to search, contrary to 
the agreement entered into between the British and 
Miguelite commanders. My representations in this 
case were successful, and the clause was amended as 
I proposed. My second address to the House wa,s in 
defence of the decision of the Committee of which I 
had been a member, on a railway Bill, which it was 
afterwards attempted to overturn in the House ; but 
we were successful. The third was in committee on 
the Poor Law Bill, to show the advantages we had 
found at East Grinstead in employing the parish poor 
in spade labour on a farm, rather than immuring 
them in a workhouse ; but in this case the House 
determined to adhere to the proposed clause, forbid- 
ding relief in any shape except within the workhouse. 
Mr. Clarke's term at Kidbrooke having expired 
July, 1833, I spent the autumn and winter of that 
and the following year in Sussex, making such 
repairs and decorations to the house as a four years' 
absence had made necessary, and attending to my 
farm and plantations. I also attended the petty 
sessions as a magistrate, and the vestry meetings 
held to consider the best method of employing the 
poor, a subject which had become one of much 
anxiety from the numbers out of work, and the 
consequent disorders which had taken place in some 



49 

parts of the country, though our neighbourhood had 
been very quiet. At this period I purchased Pilstye 
Farm with the proceeds of freight money received 
for bringing home treasure from South America in 
the 'Volage.' The plan for building a church at 
Forest Eow was set on foot by Mr. Neville, the 
curate of the parish, and the building itself com- 
menced. 

The only foreign events necessary to mention were 
the death of Ferdinand VII. of Spain in 1833, which 
caused a war of succession between his daughter 
Isabella and his brother Don Carlos, who disputed 
Ferdinand's right to abolish the Salic law of succes- 
sion. The Basque provinces took up arms in favour 
of Don Carlos, and a civil war raged for several years, 
accompanied by cruel execution of prisoners on both 
sides, till at length the Carlists were obliged to lay 
down their arms or retire into France. In this war 
the cause of the Queen was much advanced by a 
British legion, commanded by Colonel (now Lieut.- 
General Sir De Lacy) Evans, raised in London, but 
paid by the Spanish Government, and fighting under 
that flag. A small British squadron, under the com- 
mand of Lord John Hay, was also employed on the 
north coast of Spain, to assist the Queen of Spain's 
forces. These operations caused frequent questions 
and discussions in Parliament. In 1833 the young 
Queen of Portugal regained her throne at Lisbon, 
her father, Don Pedro, governing the country as 
Regent in her name. 

In the autumn of 1834, the Houses of Parlia- 
ment were set on fire by the overheating of some of 
the flues for warming the buildings ; the House of 



50 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Commons and a portion of the Speaker's house, were 
entirely destroyed, and the House of Lords so much 
damaged, that it was resolved to take^ down the exist- 
ing buildings, and construct the whole on a magnifi- 
cent scale, a work not yet completed at the end of 
twenty-one years. In the mean time the painted 
chamber was fitted up for the meetings of the peers, 
and the former House of Lords repaired for the 
Commons. 

To resume the thread of domestic politics. The 
Duke of Wellington, after his audience with the 
King, assumed the government temporarily, till Sir 
Robert Peel, who was making a tour in Italy, could 
return ; and that Sir Eobert might not be hampered 
by claims of persons who should be put into office 
before his arrival, the Duke himself took the seals 
of all the principal offices, except the Chancellor's 
and the Admiralty, which gave rise to an amusing 
caricature called the ' United Cabinet,' where the 
Duke was represented in various positions round the 
Council table, as Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Wel- 
lington, Marquis of Douro, &c. Peel on his arrival 
was gazetted first Lord of the Treasury, and the 
Duke, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Your 
uncle Ellenborough was appointed President of the 
Board of Control. The first act of the new Ministers 
was to dissolve Parliament, as not only the existence 
of the government but the whole future policy of 
the country depended upon the majority in the new 
House of Commons. The struggle was carried on 
everywhere with extraordinary eagerness. In East 
Sussex we put forward a candidate in the person of 
Sir Thomas Wilson, to oppose one of the sitting 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 51 

members, but owing to want of good management he 
retired without going to the poll. In other parts of 
the country the Conservatives had better success, and 
when the returns were completed, it was evident that 
parties were nearly balanced. The Whigs seeing this, 
determined to bring the question to a point at the 
very opening of the session, by putting forward Mr. 
Abercromby as candidate for the Speaker's chair, 
although the late Speaker, Sir Charles Manners Sut- 
ton, had held the office since 1817 ; and had in 1833 
been proposed by the government of Lord Grey them- 
selves. On the trial, Mr. Abercromby had a majority 
over his opponent of two votes, the numbers being 
304 and 302. This result showed that Peel's govern- 
ment could not reckon upon the support of the House 
of Commons, but he determined to hold office till he 
should have had the means of placing before the 
country the measures he intended to propose, and 
explain the general policy he should pursue. With 
this view he persisted, notwithstanding being put in 
minorities on some minor questions, but the Opposi- 
tion again determined to bring matters to a crisis ; 
and at a meeting between the Whigs and O'Connell, 
held at Lord Lichfield's house in St. James's Square, 
it was agreed to bring forward a resolution in the 
House of Commons that no plan for settling the 
affairs of the Irish Church would be satisfactory, 
which did not appropriate the surplus of the Church 
property to advancing national education. This 
resolution was moved and carried by a majority of 
forty-nine in the House of Commons in April 1835, 
and the ministry of Sir Eobert Peel immediately re- 
signed. Lord Melbourne resumed tlie government, 

E 2 



52 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

and the failure of Sir Robert Peel seemed to leave 
him without a rival. Nevertheless it soon became 
evident that he had to carry on his policy against an 
adverse majority in the House of Lords ; and with a 
section of his general supporters in the House of 
Commons bringing forward radical measures, which 
he disapproved, but could only successfully combat, 
by the assistance of his Conservative opponents. The 
Government was composed principally of the same 
materials as that previous to Lord Melbourne's 
dismissal, with one remarkable exception, Lord 
Brougham. 

The Great Seal was put in commission, and after 
some length of time given to Sir C. Pepys, who was 
created Lord Cottenham. Lord Brougham was a 
powerful orator and skilful debater, having great ex- 
perience in Parliament as well as the bar, where he 
had risen to eminence as a leading counsel on the 
northern circuit; though his strong political opinions 
and his personal attacks upon King George IV., 
when defending Queen Caroline, had prevented his 
obtaining the higher honours of his profession, till, 
upon the accession of Lord Grey's government in 
1830, he was at once raised to the highest, the office 
of Lord Chancellor, and received a peerage. His 
activity both of mind and body were extraordinary ; 
and besides politics and law, he had cultivated litera- 
ture and science, but by some his acquirements were 
considered superficial. In debate his powers of in- 
vective and sarcasm were overwhelming, and he was 
fond of putting the arguments of his opponents to 
the test of ridicule ; though often discursive in his 
speeches, he never lost the thread of his discourse, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 53 

but returned to the precise point at which he had 
diverged. In the House of Commons he had dis- 
tinguished himself by his opposition to the orders in 
council respecting neutral vessels in 1812 ; as a law 
reformer, a promoter of education, and an enemy to 
the slave trade, and by his defence of Queen Caroline, 
who had made him her attorney-general. In the 
House of Lords he had mainly contributed to the 
carrying of the Reform Bill and the English Poor 
Law Bill, but he was found impracticable to deal 
with by his colleagues when any difference of opinion 
arose, and he was considered as holding very demo- 
cratical ideas as to the higher powers of the State, 
His conduct during the previous summer had been 
so eccentric as to give rise to a notion of some 
aberration of intellect, and he appeared rarely during 
the two next sessions, but then resumed his former 
activity ; often wielding against his former friends 
those powers of oratory which had once been their 
chief support. 

The remainder of the session of 1835 was occupied 
by the English Municipal Corporation Bill ; which 
proposed a reform in those bodies of a nature similar 
to that introduced into the Parliamentary boroughs, 
throwing open the franchise to all inhabitants of 
houses of a certain value, and limiting the tenure of 
office of Mayor and Alderman to short fixed periods, 
instead of for life ; and by the Irish Tithe Bill, which 
received defeat in the House of Lords by the re- 
jection of the appropriation clause. In the House of 
Commons a resolution had been moved against im- 
pressment for the navy, and negatived by so small a 
majority that the Government brought in two bills 






54 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

for the better manning of the navy, by which the 
power of impressment was limited and the time for 
which any seaman conld be compelled to serve on 
board ships of war fixed. The principle of those bills 
was good, but some of the details appearing to me 
defective, I took part in the discussion of them in 
committee, and suggested some amendments which 
were not adopted. 

In the beginning of this year I had the misfortune 
to lose my only brother, Philip ; who, if it had pleased 
God to spare him, might have borne a considerable 
share in public life, as his natural talents had been 
cultivated by a careful education, and he possessed 
much energy of character when circumstances called 
it forth. At Oxford he took the highest honours in 
classics and mathematics, upon going up for his de- 
gree. His success in the profession of the law had 
not equalled the hopes of his friends, but this arose 
from accidental circumstances; and from the first 
opening for younger barristers, which occurred almost 
immediately afterwards, by the removal of several of 
the leading counsel at the Chancery Bar, there can 
be little doubt that he would have shared in the op- 
portunities of distinguishing himself; and the career 
of a successful barrister, if possessed of real talents, 
opens to him the highest ofiices of the state. My 
brother was proposing to go to Oxford for the Epi- 
phany Quarter Sessions, when he was attacked with 
sore throat, which turned to scarlet fever, and after 
only three days' illness he expired in Montague Place, 
on January 8th, leaving a widow and two little chil- 
dren — the youngest, Henrietta, only born eight days 
before, and who has since, alas ! been taken from us ; 



1833 TO 1852. 55 

and while I ain writing this memoir, his widow has 
also fallen the victim to a decline at Teignmouth, 
where she had been for some years past residing for 
her health. Your uncle, Charles Law, was this year 
elected a member of Parliament for the University 
of Cambridge, and retained his seat till his death in 
August 1850. During the course of this London 
season, I had many opportunities of meeting your 
dear mother in society ; and before its close we were 
engaged to be married, but our wedding did not take 
place till February 3rd, 1836. In autumn I paid a 
visit to Lord Ellenborough at Southam, to meet her, 
and later to your aunt Dallas, then Mrs. Des-Voeux, 
at Richmond, for the same purpose. We were mar- 
ried at the new church, St. Marylebone, and went 
down immediately afterwards to Kidbrooke, the good 
people of Forest Eow meeting us at the bridge, and 
insisting on dragging the carriage to the door, much 
to our discomfort, though we could not but be much 
gratified by such an exhibition of good-will. We 
came up to London in March for a few days, to be 
presented at Court on our marriage ; and in April 
took a house in Clarges Street, till the end of June, 
when we returned to Kidbrooke. The principal busi- 
ness in the House of Lords this session was the 
English Municipal Corporation Bill, which was dis- 
cussed in committee, clause by clause, after counsel 
and witnesses had been heard against it at the bar of 
the House. 

Many amendments were proposed, and most of 
them carried, as we had now a decided majority in 
the House of Lords ; but, as in the House of Com- 
mons, the majority was equally decided the opposite 



56 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

way, and it was not the policy of the Conservative 
party to produce a collision between the two Houses, 
it was necessary to insist only on such amendments 
as there was some probability the Commons would 
accept, rather than lose the bill altogether by reject- 
ing them. This being the case with most of the 
important bills prepared by the Government, in order 
to systemise our plan of proceedings, and prevent our 
party breaking into separate factions, the Duke of 
Wellington, with a few confidential advisers, arranged 
what should be done, and then summoned the general 
body of the party to meet at Apsley House, to con- 
sult, as it was called, but really to hear what was 
already settled; but these meetings gave any peer 
who desired it the opportunity of expressing his opi- 
nion, if he differed from the plan proposed by his 
chief, or of suggesting anything he might think 
omitted. Suggestions so offered were occasionally 
adopted, or the objection shown to be ill-founded ; 
at all events, the dissentient was pleased to have had 
the opportunity of speaking his mind, and when we 
met in the House no want of unanimity appeared. 
The meetings were held in the great picture-gallery. 
The Duke opened the proceedings by a speech deli- 
vered sitting, in which he explained the whole subject 
to be discussed ; and when he had concluded, anyone 
asked for further explanation, or expressed his opi- 
nion. The whole was considered strictly confidential. 
This year, and also in several succeeding ones, I 
dined at one of the public dinners of the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, at Lambeth Palace. These dinners 
were generally attended by the Ministers, members of 
both Houses of Parliament, and the dignitaries of 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 57 

the Church, as well as the clergy of the diocese. No 
special invitations were sent out, public notice of the 
days being given in the newspapers ; and it was only 
expected that the guests would write down their 
names at the porter's lodge the day before, that some 
idea might be formed of the number to be prepared 
for, as it varied considerably, sometimes amounting 
to one hundred and at others reaching half that 
number. 

The whole spectacle was very imposing. The 
approach to the palace through the gate-tower by 
the side of the river; the drive through the open 
courts ; the great flight of stone steps leading up 
to the entrance door, lined with servants in the 
episcopal liveries ; the long corridors through which 
the guest, himself attired in court dress, was con- 
ducted by gentlemen in full dress coats and swords 
to the drawing-room, where the archbishop received 
his company ; the mild and venerable appearance of 
the Primate himself; the prayers read in the chapel 
before proceeding to dinner ; and then the sumptuous 
repast itself, served up in the great hall, panelled 
and circled with oak, and hung round with a series of 
portraits of the Archbishops of Canterbury from a 
date previous to the Eeformation, altogether formed 
a scene of combined splendour and gravity not to be 
met with in the mansion of any other subject of the 
crown. Since the decease of Archbishop Howley, 
the revenues of the see of Canterbury having fallen 
within the control of the Church Commission, this 
relic of former magnificence has passed away among 
6 the things that were.' 

-On August 14th we were invited by Lord Liverpool 



58 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

to dine and sleep at Buxted, to meet the Duchess of 
Kent and Princess Victoria (her present Majesty) ; 
the party was very small, and I handed the Princess 
in to dinner, and sat by her. On August 30th and 31st, 
we had a bazaar in the park at Kidbrooke to raise 
money for the church at Forest Row ; the weather 
was very favourable, and we collected nearly 400 1. ; 
the number of persons who came, calculating from 
the entrance money taken at the gate, was above 
900. 

In September we paid a visit to your uncle Ellen- 
borough at Southam, and thence went to the Bishop 
of Bath and Wells, your mother's uncle at Wells, 
and returned to Kidbrooke by Salisbury, South- 
ampton, Parnham, and Guildford. On October 25th 
the new church at Forest Row was consecrated by 
the Bishop of Chichester (Dr. Otter), who came to us 
for the occasion. We remained at Kidbrooke till the 
end of the year, and at Christmas we were visited by 
one of the heaviest snow storms known for many 
years. It commenced early on the 24th of December, 
snow falling on that day which covered the ground to 
the depth of several inches. There were slight snow 
showers during the day of the 25th, and on that 
evening it began to fall heavily, and continued during 
the whole of the 26th, accompanied by a heavy gale 
at north-east, which drifted the snow in every direc- 
tion, so as to block up the roads and render them im- 
passable for several days. The road between East 
Grinstead and Lewes was not sufficiently cleared, by 
manual labour, for the stage coach to pass till the 
30th, and the road between London and Dover was 
blocked up for nearly a fortnight. This snow storm 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 59 

extended to Ireland and the north of France. It was 
also the cause of my being involved in an official cor- 
respondence with the Poor Law Commissioners. 

In the year 1835 the parishes of East Grinstead, 
Worth, Crawley, West Hoathly, Hartfield, Withy ham, 
and Lingfield (in Surrey), had been formed into a 
union under the Poor Law Act, containing a popula- 
tian of near 12,000 souls, scattered over an area of* 
30,000 acres. The Board of Guardians consisted of 
one or more (elected by the ratepayers), for each 
parish, with the addition of the magistrates residing 
within the union, who were ex officio guardians, and 
the meetings were held once a week at the Poor 
House in the town of East Grinstead. The guardians 
were elected annually at Easter, and at Easter 1836 
I had been chosen chairman. I therefore felt that it 
devolved upon me to reply to a circular letter of the 
Commissioners addressed to several unions in the 
south of England, reproving them in a somewhat 
cavalier manner for having given out-door relief to 
applicants after the snow storm, which the Com- 
missioners affected to consider as an ordinary oc- 
currence ; though it must have been well known to 
any one who took the trouble to enquire, that the 
roads had been rendered impassable, and the whole 
country buried in snow, so that work of every sort 
was suspended, and the labourer deprived for the 
time of all means of support, and an offer to receive 
them into the house would have been a mockery, as 
they could not have moved their wives or children to 
East Grinstead from a distance, even if there had been 
room to receive such numbers when they arrived. I 
therefore, with the concurrence of the board, sent a 



60 MEMORANDA OF MT LIFE. 

detailed reply to the Commissioners, vindicating the 
conduct of the guardians who gave the order, for the 
snow had prevented my going to East Grinstead on 
that day, and showing the impracticability of obeying 
the letter of the law on such an occasion. 

The effect of this letter was that at our meeting 
on January 12th, one of the assistant commissioners 
(Mr. Tufnell) attended, and expressed the approbation 
of the Commissioners of the relief granted on Decem- 
ber 28th 'under the peculiar circumstances.'. I mention 
this also, because it shows that the Poor Law Commis- 
sioners of that time, though sometimes over strict in 
their general orders, were willing to listen to reason 
when it was pointed out to them, and I have always 
considered, in spite of the abuse lavished upon them, 
that they carried out their difficult task with great 
discretion as well as firmness. Before quitting the 
subject of the snow storm I must add that it was on 
this occasion that several houses in the lower part of 
Lewes were overwhelmed by an avalanche falling 
from the cliff of Mount Coburn, burying with them 
their inmates, several of whom lost their lives. 

The year 1837 was memorable as the commence- 
ment of a new reign. The Parliamentary session 
opened on January 31st, and in the course of the 
following month the Government brought in the 
Bills for amending the Irish municipal corporations, 
and for extending to Ireland a poor law on principles 
similar to those of the English poor law, no pro- 
vision for the poor (excepting in cases of sickness) 
then existing in Ireland. In March they introduced, 
in the House of Commons, a resolution to abolish 
church-rates in England, which was carried by 273 



■ 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 61 

votes against 250 ; but in a further stage this 
majority was reduced to five (287 — 282), and the 
measure was dropped. A motion by Sir William 
Molesworth to abolish the property qualification 
for members of Parliament was negatived by 133 
against 104 ; and one by Mr. Lushington to remove 
bishops from Parliament was negatived by 197 
against 92. These divisions show the strength of 
the Radical party in the House of Commons at that 
date. The Irish Municipal Corporation Bill passed 
through the House of Commons in April, and was 
read a second time in the House of Lords on the 
25th of that month without a division; but upon the 
motion for its committal, on May. 5th, the Duke of 
Wellington proposed the postponement of that stage 
till June 9th, which amendment was carried by 192 
votes against 115 ; and on June 9th a further post- 
ponement to July 3rd was carried by 205 against 119. 
On May 1st Lord John Eussell introduced the Irish 
Tithe Bill, without the appropriation clauses which 
the preceding year the Government had declared 
absolutely necessary to any satisfactory settlement 
of the question, but, in lieu of it, levying a tax of 
10L per cent, on the tithes ; and on June 13th he 
carried a motion for a committee to enquire into the 
bishops' property in England by 319 against 236 ; 
but the further progress of these measures was 
stopped by the demise of the Crown, which occurred 
immediately afterwards. 

The King's birthday was kept on May 29th with 
the usual ceremonies, but neither the King nor Queen 
were well enough to be present at the Drawing-room, 
which in their absence was held by the Princess 



62 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Augusta, on June 9th. The reports of the King's 
health became alarming ; on the 12th bulletins of its 
state began to be issued, and were continued daily. 
On Sunday, the 18th, the King was prayed for in all 
churches, and early in the morning of the 20th he 
expired. According to custom, a Council was imme- 
diately summoned (at Kensington Palace) to give 
orders for proclaiming Queen Victoria. Lord Ellen- 
borough, who was present at the Council, told us 
that the young Queen, who had only just completed 
her eighteenth year, behaved with great propriety 
at the Council, and read her declaration without 
faltering, or any symptom of nervousness. The 
following day (the 21st) the Queen was publicly pro- 
claimed, and the House of Lords met at two o'clock 
for the peers to take the oath of allegiance to their 
new Sovereign. The Duke of Cumberland, now 
become King of Hanover by the decease of his 
elder brother (that crown not descending to a 
female), took his seat, a precedent being found in 
John of Gaunt, ' King of Castille and Duke of Lan- 
caster.' The same day the Queen received the 
bishops and the judges at St. James's Palace, and 
the following day both Houses of Parliament voted 
addresses of congratulation to the Queen Eegnant, 
and of condolence to the Queen Dowager. 

On July 8th King William's funeral took place at 
Windsor; and on the 17th the Queen prorogued 
Parliament in person, and it was dissolved by procla- 
mation the same evening. 

By the end of August the elections for the new 
House of Commons were finished, and the result ap- 
peared to give a gain of six votes to the Conserva- 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 63 

tive party. In England the gain had been twenty-two 
in the counties, and one in the boroughs ; but this 
was diminished by losses in Scotland and Ireland, 
and on the whole leaving the proportions much as 
in the former Parliament, but making the Ministers 
more than ever dependent upon the votes of the party 
of O'Connell, or, as it was properly called, 6 O'Con- 
nell's tail.' Parliament met in November, but no 
measures of consequence were passed before the 
Christmas holidays. 

In February of this year your uncle, Charles Law, 
lost his eldest daughter, Nancy, at the age of twenty- 
two, by consumption — a disease which the following 
year carried off his eldest son, Edward, and another 
daughter, Selina, and two more daughters, Emily 
and Gertrude ; and, lastly, his youngest son, Henry, 
has since died of the same terrible complaint. 

In the beginning of April we went up to London 
for the season, having taken a house, 18, Charles 
Street, Berkeley Square ; but finding it unsuited for 
the purpose we wanted, and that there was great 
difficulty in finding any furnished house within our 
means, we determined to purchase the lease of a 
house, and entered into negotiation for 3, Chester- 
field Street, which we nearly completed ; but the 
lady in possession of the premises asked such an ex- 
orbitant price for her interest in the house and her 
furniture, that we broke it off and entered into a 
treaty for 8, Cumberland Place, a much better house, 
but in a less convenient situation. We completed 
the purchase of the lease for eighty-four years, at the 
price of 4,500?., and in October moved into our new 
residence. My mother this summer had moved from 



64 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Montagu Place to 64, Upper Berkeley Street, which 
was close to our new house. 

On April Gth, I was re-elected chairman of the 
Board of Guardians for the East Grinstead Union. The 
following year I was succeeded by Mr. Crawford, of 
Saint Hill, but I continued to attend the board as a 
member whenever we were at Kidbrooke. During 
the first few years we met once a week at eleven 
o'clock in the forenoon, and frequently sat till four 
o'clock or later, besides meetings of committees, but 
now the board in summer meets only once a fort- 
night at 2 p.m., and, if necessary, oftener in the 
winter. 

In the House of Lords I spoke three times this 
session : on April 7th, upon the working of the Poor 
Law in our district, some attacks having been made 
in petitions on the conduct of some of the Sussex 
Board of Guardians ; on July 6th, in favour of the 
third reading of the Bill for maintaining and im- 
proving Bridlington Harbour, which was carried by 
45 votes against 35 ; and on the 1 1th, against the 
repeal of punishment of death on persons seducing 
seamen from their allegiance. 

Before the close of this session a series of resolu- 
tions were passed for the conduct of the private 
business of the House of Lords as regards opposed 
bills, which have been found a great improvement on 
the former practice of the House. 

Up to this time private bills, such as for the con- 
struction of railways, canals, local improvements, &c, 
when opposed by petition, were referred to a com- 
mittee upstairs, which was attended by any peer who 
chose ; so that not unfrequently the decision of the 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 65 

committee was carried, not by those who had heard 
the evidence, but by those who only came at the con- 
clusion to vote. Besides this, questions relating to 
obedience to the standing orders of the House were 
mixed up with that of the merits of the bill itself. By 
the new resolution these bills were to go before two 
distinct committees ; the first a ' Standing Order 
Committee,' named at the beginning of the session, 
and presided over by the Chairman of Committees, 
which was to decide solely whether the standing 
orders of the House had been complied with by the 
promoters of the bill. 

If this was found to the satisfaction of the Standing 
Order Committee, then the merits of the bill were 
considered by another committee appointed for the 
occasion by the House, upon the recommendation of 
the Committee of Selection, a body of five peers 
chosen for that purpose at the commencement of 
each session, and composed of the Chairman of Com- 
mittees and two peers from each side of the House. 

The committee upon the merits of the bill also 
consisted of five peers, who were to sit from day to 
day till the case was decided. If any peer named 
for the committee had any pecuniary or personal 
interest in the bill, he was to declare it, so that 
another peer might be substituted ; and in any case 
where the chairman of committees considered that 
an opposed private bill affected public interests so as 
to require sifting by a select committee, power was 
given to him by those resolutions to recommend 
that it should be treated as an opposed bill. After a 
trial of seventeen years, this system has been found 
to answer extremely well, and to be quite free from 

F 



66 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

any suspicion of jobbing, which had been sometimes 
imputed to committees on the previous system. 

On August 9th, we went down to Kidbrooke and re- 
mained till October 7th, when we returned to London. 
On September 19th, there was a great Conservative 
dinner at East Grinstead to celebrate the return of 
Mr. George Darby for the eastern division of the 
county, in the room of Mr. Curtis, the former Radical 
member, our second candidate, Mr. Augustus Fuller, 
being beaten by only forty-four votes by the Whig 
member, Cavendish. The dinner was held in a large 
tent in the bowling-green behind the ' Crown Inn ; ' 
190 persons sat down ; Mr. Blunt, of Crabbett, in the 
chair. 

The following day Darby and Fuller, and the prin- 
cipal gentlemen of the neighbourhood who had been 
their supporters, dined at Kidbrooke. 

On November 14th, your dear mother was confined 
of her first child, a little girl, which was, to our sad 
disappointment, stillborn ; as soon as she was suf- 
ficiently recovered to bear the journey, we returned 
to Kidbrooke, on December 19th. 

On October 28th this year, the French took by 
assault the city of Constantine, which secured their 
dominion in that part of Africa. This year also 
proved the turning point of the fortunes of Don 
Carlos in Spain. His partisans had increased from 
a few isolated bands to a numerous army, which, 
under Zumalacarregui, had defeated in succession 
the best generals of the Queen ; and though Zumala- 
carregui had died of the wound he received before 
Bilboa, Don Carlos, who had escaped from England 
and crossed France in disguise, now advanced in 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 67 

person into the heart of the kingdom, and after 
joining his adherents under Cabrera in Yalentia, 
appeared before Madrid, which was thrown into the 
utmost consternation ; but Espartero, at the head of 
all the troops he could collect, placed himself between 
the city and the advancing enemy, and Don Carlos, 
after fighting an indecisive battle, moved towards 
Aranda de Dueros, and finally returned into Navarre, 
Cabrera returning to Valentia. The war continued 
% in the Basque provinces during 1838, but early in 
1839, dissensions broke out among the Carlist chiefs. 
Several were executed by the commander-in-chief, 
Maroto, who soon after himself entered into a 
treaty with Espartero, and by the convention of 
Bergara sixteen battalions laid down their arms, 
and Don Carlos, with the remainder of his army, 
was obliged to retire into France, where his troops 
were disarmed, and he himself detained by the 
French Government. Cabrera continued to main- 
tain himself in Arragon and Yalentia till the fol- 
lowing year (1840), when he was also driven into 
France with the remains of his army, about 5,000 
men. 

The attention of Parliament during the session of 
1838, was chiefly occupied by the affairs of Ireland 
and Canada. 

The bills for introducing into Ireland the Poor 
Law, and for amending the Tithe Acts, and Mu- 
nicipal Corporations, were discussed at great length 
in both Houses. The Poor Law Bill was ultimately 
passed by large majorities, and the Tithe Bill, the 
appropriation clause being again omitted by the 
Government, and an attempt in the House of Com- 

F 2 



68 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

nions, by Mr. Ward, to insert it, found only forty- 
six supporters. 

The Municipal Corporation Bill went through all 
its stages in both Houses, but was finally lost by the 
House of Commons refusing to agree to the amend- 
ment of the Lords, which raised the qualification for 
voting from 5L to 10L In the winter of 1837 a 
rebellion had broken out in Lower Canada among 
the French population, followed by a rising of the 
English Radicals in Upper Canada, assisted by bodies* 
of ' sympathisers ' from the United States, who took 
possession of Navy Island, in the St. Lawrence, just 
above the Falls of Niagara, and thence hastened to 
invade the mainland of Upper Canada. These 
risings were easily suppressed, that in Upper Canada 
by the militia alone, without any assistance from the 
Queen's troops. In consequence of this rebellion, a 
bill was brought into Parliament suspending the 
constitution of Lower Canada, and Lord Durham was 
sent out as Governor- General of all the British North 
American provinces, with extensive powers. Lord 
Durham was a man of violent temper and haughty 
manners, but honourable and consistent in his politics 
and of long experience in Parliament. He held 
the office of Lord Privy Seal in Lord Grey's Govern- 
ment, and was of the democratic section of the 
Whigs. 

In the month of June, he published several ordi- 
nances for regulating the affairs of the provinces, 
and disposing of the rebels who had submitted or 
should do so hereafter. 

Upon the arrival of the ordinances in England, 
objections were made to them in Parliament, as ex- 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 69 

ceeding his powers, and Government ultimately 
acquiesced, and disallowed them. The intelligence 
of this reached Canada in October, and Lord Durham 
instantly threw up his government and returned to 
England, where he arrived in November. He had 
hardly quitted Canada when the rebellion again 
broke out, but it was promptly repressed by Sir John 
Colborne (now Lord Seaton) ; and a body of sym- 
pathisers from the United States, who had landed at 
Prescot, were forced to surrender at discretion, and 
several of them tried, condemned, and executed as 
pirates. 

In March a resolution was passed in the House of 
Commons by Lord Sandon, censuring the Govern- 
ment for their conduct towards Canada, which was 
negatived by only 29 votes, 287 to 316. I may here 
mention two other divisions which took place this 
session in the House of Commons, to show the state 
of feeling in this Parliament on these subjects. A 
motion by Mr. Grote for leave to bring in a bill for 
taking votes at elections for Parliament by ballot, 
was negatived by 315 votes against 198 ; and a motion 
for a committee of the whole House to enquire into 
the acts regulating the trade in corn was negatived 
by 300 votes against 95. The House thus decided 
against even taking into consideration either of 
these questions. In the House of Lords we had a 
singular debate and division upon a motion of Lord 
Brougham for copies of orders issued by the Ad- 
miralty respecting Sardinian vessels on Spanish 
coasts. These instructions, it was assumed, directed 
our cruizers to warn off Sardinian vessels carrying 
warlike stores to places occupied by the adherents of 



70 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Don Carlos, a proceeding which, as we were not 
belligerents, would have been an unjustifiable inter- 
ference with the rights of an independent State. 
The Government refused the production of the in- 
structions at first, on the ground that none such had 
been issued, but in the course of debate, the First 
Lord of the Admiralty complained that the existence 
of such instructions could only have been made 
known through a breach of trust on the part of the 
Admiral commanding the fleet in the Mediterranean 
(Sir R. Stopford), whose politics were known to 
differ from those of the Government. This inconsis- 
tency, and the insinuations against an officer of 
such high character, rendered the debate more eager. 
The Duke of Wellington spoke against the conduct 
of the Ministers, but left the House without voting. 
On this, Brougham was going to withdraw his 
motion, but was urged by some of the peers near 
him to divide the House, to which he consented ; and 
upon the numbers being announced, they were found 
to be equal, 57 for, and 57 against the motion, where- 
upon (as stated in the minutes of proceedings of the 
House, July 10th, 1830), 'it was according to the 
ancient rule resolved in the negative.' This result 
caused much amusement. The Ministers had been 
well frightened, and the secret of the instructions re- 
mained undivulged. I voted with Brougham, think- 
ing — that although as a general rule, Government 
should not be pressed to produce instructions, when 
they assert on their responsibility that it would be 
hurtful to the public tcr do so — this particular case, 
involving a breach of the Law of Nations, ought to 
be made an exception. This session I attended (as a 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 71 

member) the select committees on Steam Navigation, 
on the Thames, on the colonisation of New Zealand, 
and on Lord Warncliffe's Committee 6 to enquire into 
the operations of the Poor Law in certain cases ' 
where it had been complained of, and also on the 
imprisonment for debt committee. These commit- 
tees occupied nearly the whole session, generally two 
days, and sometimes three, in each week. 

I spoke only twice, on March 20th on Poor Law, 
and on July 26th on Slave Trade Bill, in reply to im- 
putations cast upon the officers of the navy employed 
in suppressing the slave trade, by Lord Brougham's 
speech, where he accused them of allowing empty 
slave vessels to pass them unmolested, on their voyage 
to Africa, that they might afterwards capture them 
when laden with human cargo, in order to obtain the 
headmoney. The fact being that, till last year, the 
treaties with Spain and Portugal had actually pro- 
hibited the detention of any vessel, unless slaves were 
found on board ; and that since the treaty with Spain 
had been extended, so as to allow prima facie evidence 
of the vessel being engaged in the slave trade, the 
number of empty vessels sent in for adjudication 
greatly exceeded the number of those with slaves on 
board. 

The coronation of the Queen took place June 28th. 
The ceremony was very impressive. Westminster 
Abbey was fitted with temporary galleries and benches 
for the occasion, which were filled with spectators in 
their richest dresses. The peers in their coronation 
robes were seated in the south transept, the peeresses 
opposite to them, in the north. Between the two, on 
a raised platform, was placed a chair of state. The 



72 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Queen with her train, entering at the west door of 
the Abbey, passed up the whole length of the nave 
to the chair, when the religious ceremony was per- 
formed, and then took her seat upon the throne 
before-mentioned, and there received the homage of 
the peers individually, which was performed by each 
peer touching the crown upon her head, kneeling and 
kissing her hand. The words of homage were only said 
by the first peer of each rank. As soon as the crown 
was placed upon the Queen's head, the peers and 
peeresses simultaneously put on their coronets, which 
they had previously carried in their hands. All the 
arrangements were very good, and no accident or 
confusion occurred. We left our house at a quarter 
before eight in the morning, reached the Abbey with- 
out any impediment, and got home again at half- 
past six, p.m. The day was cloudy with some few 
gleams of sun ; the effect of these streaming through 
the windows of the Abbey, and lighting up the mass 
of silver, gold, and jewels, which decorated the 
dresses of the crowd within, was very striking, and 
made one regret that they were c so few and far be- 
tween.' 

The voyage by steam direct across the Atlantic was 
first made this year by a British steamer, the ' Sirius,' 
which left Cork on April 3rd, and reached New York 
on the 22nd, making the passage to Falmouth in 
eighteen days. A more powerful steamer, the ' Great 
Western,' built for the express purpose, left Bristol 
on April 8th, and reached New York on the 23rd ; 
and made the return passage, the following month, 
in the same number of days, reducing the length of 
the voyage to fifteen days. 



1833 TO 1852. 73 

The outward voyage to America by sailing vessels 
had often occupied four or five weeks. This year the 
discovery of the northern shore of the American con- 
tinent, from Mackenzie's River to Behrings Straits, 
was completed by an expedition sent by the Hudson's 
Bay Company, under the command of Messrs. Dease 
and Simpson, who reached Point Barrow from the 
mouth of the Mackenzie, thus filling up the interval 
between the farthest point reached by Franklin west 
from Behrings Straits. The Royal Exchange in Lon- 
don, was destroyed by fire on January 10th, this year. 
This January was the coldest known in England for 
many years, the thermometer at Kidbrooke in the 
night of the 19th fell to 2° below zero, and still lower 
at other places in the neighbourhood. Hollies, laurels, 
myrtles, laurestinas, roses, and bay-trees were killed 
down to the ground, and the bark of the plane-trees 
peeled off afterwards. There were some frosts in May, 
and the winter set in early. We came up to town for 
the season on March 1 5th and remained till July 28th, 
when the heavy work of the session being over,'' we re- 
turned to Kidbrooke, I going up by coach for parti- 
cular divisions, which required full attendance. In the 
autumn, we passed six weeks with your uncle Ellen- 
borough at Southam, making a little tour in our way 
from Kidbrooke to Lord Chichester's, at Stanmer ; 
thence through Brighton, Worthing, Arundel, and 
Chichester, to Sir George Staunton, at Leigh Park, 
near Havant ; from thence to Portsmouth, and crossed 
over to Ryde, where your grandmamma Ellenborough 
was staying. Returning through Portsmouth, we pro- 
ceeded to Winchester, and thence through Marl- 
borough, Cirencester, and Cheltenham to Southam. 



74 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

While at Southam, we went to the musical festival 
at Gloucester, where there was a great performance 
of sacred music in the Cathedral. We returned to 
Kidbrooke through Oxford in the middle of October, 
and remained there till the close of the year. 

The year 1839 was ushered in by a violent gale of 
wind, approaching to a hurricane in Ireland, and the 
North of England ; much damage was done to build- 
ings in Dublin and in Liverpool, and in the country, 
whole plantations laid waste, the trees being either 
blown down or broken. The fury of the storm did 
not extend further south in England than Oxford. 
The spring was cold, snow lay on the ground in Ash- 
down Forest on May 14th. The summer was wet, and 
the harvest in consequence in many parts late, and 
damaged by the rain ; and great difficulty was expe- 
rienced in sowing wet lands in autumn. The con- 
duct of our naval administration had been much 
canvassed since the prorogation of Parliament, in 
newspaper pamphlets and speeches at public meetings, 
and towards the end of the year (1838) Sir John 
Barrow, who held the office of second secretary to 
the Admiralty, in publishing a life of Admiral Lord 
Anson, added to it a supplemental chapter, defending 
at length the conduct of the then existing Board of 
Admiralty, and asserting the efficiency of the mea- 
sures adopted for the defence of the country against 
hostile attack from any quarter. Differing entirely 
from these conclusions, I drew up in January a paper 
of remarks on Sir John Barrow's statements, and 
sent it when finished to Lord Ellenborough, who 
showed it to the Duke of Wellington. 

We went up to London February 4th, for the meet- 



POLITiCAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 15 

ing of Parliament, which was opened the following 
day; and that very evening Lord Hardwicke gave 
notice of a motion on the state of the navy. On the 
11th, however, he withdrew it, as he told me, by the 
wish of the Duke of Wellington, but I felt that the 
subject was of so much importance, that I resolved, 
without communicating with any of my political 
party, to bring it on myself, and accordingly on 
February 15, gave notice that I should on the 22nd 
move for papers relating to the effective state of the 
navy. The debate came on accordingly. I spoke for 
one hour and a half, showing that we had completely 
abandoned the old system of keeping a respectable 
force always in our home ports ready to defend the 
country if unexpectedly attacked, or to strike a blow 
at any point required ; and now, although we had a 
great number of ships employed, they were so scat- 
tered in small numbers over the whole world, that 
they might be easily cut off in detail, and we had no 
reserve force ready to reinforce our distant stations, 
nor to defend our own shores if the attack should be 
made upon them ; and that, further, our ships were 
insufficiently manned, and in some cases sent out 
half armed. Hardwicke followed upon the empty 
state of our dockyards. 

Lord Minto, the first Lord of the Admiralty, and 
Lord Melbourne, defended the Government, and Lords 
Melville and De Grey, former first Lords of the Ad- 
miralty, also took part in the discussion. The Duke 
of Wellington was not present. The whole proceed- 
ing was very satisfactory, and it led to discussions in 
both Houses of Parliament, during this and succeed- 



76 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

ing sessions, which by degrees produced a remedy to 
most of the grievances complained of. 

Yon will find in the little volume of f Naval Pam- 
phlets ' in the library in Berkeley Square, a report of 
my speech, and a collection of the arguments put for- 
ward on both sides of this question by various writers. 
The question of the Corn Laws came again under 
the consideration of both Houses this session. On 
March 14th, a resolution, moved by Lord Fitzwilliam 
in the House of Lords, that ' existing Corn Laws 
have failed in maintaining such steadiness of price 
as is desirable,' was negatived by 224 votes against 
24 ! Of six Cabinet Ministers who were present at 
this debate, two (Lords Melbourne and Lansdowne) 
voted in the majority; two (Lords Minto and Hol- 
land) in the minority, and two (Lords Normanby and 
Duncannon) did not vote at all. 

On March 18th, a motion by Mr. Charles Yilliers 
for going into committee of the whole House (of Com- 
mons) to consider the Acts regulating the importation 
of foreign corn, was, after five nights' debate, nega- 
tived by 342 votes against 195. 

The Radicals gained no ground this session. A 
motion for the ballot was negatived by a majority of 
117 — the same number as the year before. Two 
resolutions in favour of further Parliamentary 
reform, brought forward at different times by Mr. 
Thomas Duncombe as amendments to resolutions 
proposed by the Government, met with only 86 
supporters on the first occasion, and 81 on the 
second ; and a specific motion by Sir H. Fleetwood 
was negatived by 207 against 81. At the same time 
the Government could hardly command working 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 77 

majorities. A resolution, moved in April by Lord 
John Russell, approving c the principles on which 
Ireland has of late been governed/ was met by an 
amendment by Sir Robert Peel, which was only 
negatived by a majority of 22 votes, viz., 318 against 
296 ; and on May 5th, upon the motion for going into 
committee upon a Bill, brought in by Government, 
for suspending the constitution of Jamaica, it was 
only carried by a majority of 5 votes — 294 against 
289. Upon this the Ministers tendered their resig- 
nations, and the Queen sent for Sir Robert Peel to 
form a new Administration ; but after two days, he 
gave up his task, because the Queen refused to part 
with any of the ladies of her household. Several of 
these, as the Duchess of Sutherland and Lady Nor- 
manby, were wives or near relations of the retiring 
Ministers, and Peel naturally considered that they 
would be a sort of spies if left in their places about 
the person of the Sovereign, and he therefore insisted 
on the power of removing these ; but the Queen had 
been taught that the hostility shown against her 
Whig Ministers by the Conservatives was equally 
felt against herself, and that this was an attempt to 
deprive her of the society of all those to whom she 
was accustomed, and to surround her with strangers. 

The Government still remained in abeyance till 
the 13th, when it was announced that all the 
Ministers would remain in their offices. 

Their position in respect to Parliament was, how- 
ever, little improved by this failure of their opponents, 
which was ascribed to ' back stairs influence.' On 
June 19th, in committee on an amended Jamaica Bill, 
they only carried the first clause by a majority of 10 



78 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

votes — 267 against 257; and in the House of Lords, 
when it came up, this clause was struck out by a 
large majority. On June 20th, Lord Stanley's address 
(in the House of Commons) to the Queen to rescind 
the minute of Privy Council authorising the new 
Government plan of education, was negatived by 5 
votes only — 280 against 275 ; and the following 
24th, the vote of 30,000£. moved for by Government 
to carry out this scheme was only carried by 2 votes 
— 275 against 273. 

The Speaker (Abercromby) having resigned, the 
Government candidate for the office, Mr. Charles 
Shaw Lefevre, though a very popular person in 
private society, and, as the event has shown, well 
qualified for the post, was elected by a majority of 
only 18 votes (317 — 299) over his Conservative oppo- 
nent, Goulburn. In the House of Lords, a motion 
for a committee to enquire into the state of crime in 
Ireland had been carried, in spite of the opposition 
of Government, in March, and after the resumption 
of office by the Ministers. 

The 101. franchise was again inserted into the 
Irish Municipal Corporation Bill, instead of 8L, to 
which Government was now willing to raise it. A 
series of resolutions on education, moved by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, was carried by 229 — 
118. The second reading of a Bill relative to the 
Portuguese slave trade, authorizing the seizure of 
Portuguese vessels so employed on sole authority 
of British Government, was negatived (though a 
more modified Bill afterwards passed) ; and, lastly, 
Lord Brougham's resolutions upon the administration 
of justice in Ireland were carried by 86 — 52. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 79 

Parliament was prorogued on August 27th, and in 
the following month several changes took place in the 
Ministry. Mr. Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, was created a peer as Baron Monteagle of 
Brandon, and succeeded in his office by Sir Francis 
Baring. Mr. Labouchere became President of the 
Board of Trade, in the room of Mr. Poulet Thomp- 
son, appointed Governor of Canada. Lord Howick 
(now Earl Grey), Secretary of War, and his brother- 
in-law, Sir Charles Wood, Secretary to the Admiralty, 
quitted the Government altogether, and were suc- 
ceeded in their offices by Mr. Macaulay and Mr. 
Moore O'Ferrall. 

Besides my motion on the state of the navy, I 
only spoke twice, and then shortly, this session : on 
a motion of Lord Hardwicke upon naval education, 
and on the question of the Mexican pilot, taken by 
force out of our men of war packets by a French 
cruiser, for which the French Government afterwards 
apologised. [I also gave notice of a motion for the 
production of papers relative to the proceedings of 
the French at Minorca ; but Lord Melbourne having 
afterwards told me privately that he would himself 
lay upon the table such of the papers as it was fit to 
produce, I withdrew my motion.] As there was no 
business in the House of Lords after the end of June 
which required a continuous attendance, we went 
down to Kidbrooke on the 25th for the summer, and 
remained there till December 14th. We had intended 
going up to London before the close of November, 
for your mother's expected confinement, but on the 
18th she felt very unwell, and in the evening a little 
girl was born, but not alive. 



80 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

This of necessity compelled us to remain at Kid- 
brooke till your mother was sufficiently recovered to 
bear her journey, when we came up to Great Cumber- 
land Place. This autumn I attended two meetings 
of the magistrates of East Sussex, held at Lewes, to 
consider the propriety of establishing a paid police 
under the Constabulary Act recently passed. At the 
first meeting, October 14th, a resolution was passed 
that the existing system was inefficient, and a com- 
mittee was appointed to consider how far the provi- 
sions of the Act could be adopted with advantage ; and 
to report to an adjourned sessions on November 7th. 
This committee reported in favour of adopting the 
Constabulary Act in six districts (one of which was 
East Grinstead), where a majority of the magis- 
trates had desired it ; but this recommendation was 
met at the meeting at the quarter sessions by a mo- 
tion of adjournment, which was carried by 13 to 7, 
and the whole question adjourned sine die. The next 
year, however, the adoption of the Act throughout 
East Sussex took place. In May, at the anniversary 
meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, I was 
elected a member of the council of that society, and 
have continued to belong to it ever since (1856). 
Erom May 1845, to May 1847, I filled the office of 
President to the society. Its financial affairs were 
in a state of difficulty; and the measures proposed 
by the council to meet the deficiency, by increasing 
the amount of entrance money and annual subscrip- 
tion, raised much clamour among the economical 
reformers in the society; but the difficulties were 
got over. And now that the Government, chiefly 
through the exertions of Sir Eoderick Murchison, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1333 TO 1852. 81 

liave granted it an aid of 500?. a year, on condition 
of throwing open its maps to the inspection of the 
public, the society is placed on a firm basis, and has 
been able to occupy a building suitable for the recep- 
tion of its valuable collection of maps, charts, and 
books relating to geography. 

The annual address of the president, commenced 
by Mr. W. E. Hamilton in 1838, gives an account of 
the progress of geography during the year ; and a 
collection of them gives an accurate view of the pro- 
gress of the science throughout the world. You will 
find the addresses of the first ten years bound up in 
a volume in the library in Berkeley Square. 1 The 
contraband trade in opium, carried on by English 
merchants upon the coasts of China, and especially 
in the Canton Eiver, had been greatly increasing for 
the last few years ; and the local authorities had 
taken little pains to repress it, till it grew to such 
a height as to become the subject of discussion in 
the Council of the Emperor, who resolved to put 
an end to it, and appointed a new Viceroy of Canton, 
Lin, who, on arriving in his province, immediately 
took rigorous measures, and obliged the European 
merchants to deliver up to him 20,000 chests of 
opium. This and other acts of violence induced our 
Government to send a strong naval force into the 
Chinese Seas ; and as a war appeared imminent, I 
employed myself during the last month that we were 
at Kidbrooke in drawing up a plan for intercepting 
the great internal water communication between the 
north and south of the empire, by ascending one of 
the great rivers which intersect the line of navigable 

1 And now (1861) a second volume from 18-18 to 1858. 






82 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

streams and canals along which the traffic is carried, 
and thus depriving the capital of the supplies of food 
and revenue which it draws from the provinces. This 
idea had first risen in my mind so far back as when 
we returned from China in 1817, and thought that 
the rejection of Lord Amherst's embassy might have 
led to hostilities. I now worked it out ; and upon 
going to London, showed it to Sir G. Staunton, who 
strongly urged me to communicate it to the Govern- 
ment ; and I accordingly sent it to Lord Palmerston, 
then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who acknowledged 
it courteously ; and, as I was afterwards told by Lord 
Minto, it was sent, with other plans, to the com- 
manders of our forces in China. The entrance to 
the River Yang-tse-kiang was surveyed by Captain 
Bethune, but no further step was taken towards 
carrying out the plan till your uncle Ellenborough 
became President of the Board of Control, in the 
autumn of 1841. Another war was carried on by 
England this year in the East, which, although at first 
completely successful, was the cause of the greatest 
reverse which our arms had suffered in those coun- 
tries. The Ameer Dost Mahommed, Chief of Cabul, 
having refused to send away a Eussian envoy and 
break off all communication with that empire, al- 
though our envoy who made this demand was not 
empowered to guarantee the Ameer against the 
consequences, the Governor- General of India, Lord 
Auckland, acting under the instructions of the Go- 
vernment in England, issued a declaration of war 
against Dost Mahommed and his brothers, the rulers 
of Candahar, in the winter of 1838, and assembled an 
army to invade Afghanistan, depose the Ameer, and 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 83 

replace on the throne ShahSoujah, the former king, 
who had been driven out many years before by his 
subjects, and was at that time living an exile within 
our territories. 

Two armies, one from Bengal, the other from Bom- 
bay, united at Bukkur, on the Indus, and then crossing 
the river, advanced, under the command of General 
Keane, through the Bolan Pass, and occupied Canda- 
har without encountering opposition, except from 
harassing parties of the Beloochies, who cut off the 
stragglers. After remaining some time at Candahar, 
the army advanced upon Cabul, took the fortress of 
Ghuznee by storm, and placed Shah Soojah upon the 
throne of Cabul. The army of Dost Mahommed 
having dispersed on hearing of the fall of Ghuznee, 
the Ameer himself, after a defeat near Bamean, 
came voluntarily into the British camp to surrender 
himself prisoner, and was sent as such to the Go- 
vernor-General, in the autumn of 1840. This year 
(1839) died the Sultan Mahommed the Second, the 
destroyer of the Janissaries. Not long before his 
death he had declared the Pacha of Egypt, Mehemet 
Ali, a rebel, and had sent against him a large army, 
under Hafiz Pacha. This army was, however, totally 
defeated by the Egyptians, under Ibrahim Pacha, at 
the battle of Nezib, in Syria. On the death of Ma- 
hommed, his son Abdul Mejid l (the present Sultan), 
succeeded without opposition to the throne, but the 
Capitan Pacha carried over the fleet which was lying 
in the Dardanelles to the Pacha of Egypt. 

At home the proceedings of the Chartists gave a 
good deal of uneasiness this year. The Chartists 

1 Died 1861. 
g2 



84 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

were extreme Badicals, and took their name from a 
petition which they presented to Parliament, con- 
taining certain changes in the constitution, which 
they called the People's Charter. They became 
divided among themselves into two sections : ' the 
moral force/ and ' the physical force ' Chartists — the 
former asking to gain their objects by disseminating 
their principles through the press, by public meetings, 
and petitions to Parliament, — the latter prepared to 
go further, and resort to any measures of violence. 
Early in May, a royal proclamation was issued 
against meetings by torch light ; in July very serious 
riots took place at Birmingham, where two houses 
were burnt, and several plundered by Chartists ; and 
in November a body of them, headed by one Frost, 
an ex-magistrate, attacked the town of Newport, in 
Monmouthshire. They were, however, repulsed by a 
small body of soldiers stationed there, and several 
were killed, and Frost himself and other leaders 
taken, and subsequently tried and convicted of high 
treason. 1 Some Chartists from London held a meet- 
ing on Ashurstwood common on August 25th, but it 
proved a failure : we had received notice of it before- 
hand, and had taken such precautions as our means 
afforded against a riot, if such had been attempted, 
but the leaders, finding they were watched, measured 
their language accordingly. 

Two marriages took place in your mother's family 
this year. Your uncle, Henry Law, was married in 
May to Miss Eochfort ; and in September the re- 

6 This sentence was commuted to transportation for life; in 1856 he 
was pardoned altogether. On returning to England he recommenced 
seditious speeches. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 85 

corder's eldest daughter, Mary, married Lord Kilmaine. 
My mother had a severe illness in the spring of this 
year, which, at her age, seventy-nine, alarmed us a 
good deal, especially as Mr. Pennington had pre- 
viously told us she had water in her side, and that it 
was increasing rapidly. 

My cousin, Sir Osborne Gibbes, this year finally 
quitted the army. He had been educated at the Mili- 
tary College at Sandhurst, and on quitting it was re- 
commended for his proficiency in his studies for a com- 
mission without purchase, but he was unfortunately 
gazetted to a regiment stationed at the time in the 
West Indies ; and as both his father and mother had 
fallen victims to that climate, his aunt and guardian, 
Mrs. Agnes Gibbes, fearing that a like fate might 
await him there, persuaded him to exchange into 
another regiment on half-pay, and thus threw him 
out of active service and the chance of promotion. 
He remained on half-pay nearly twelve years, and 
having married an Irish young lady, Miss Moore, 
would probably have never thought more of the 
army, but in 1832, a circular was issued from the 
Horse Guards, calling on officers in his position either 
to express their readiness to serve, or to resign their 
commissions. Osborne chose the former alternative, 
and was soon after gazetted to the 69th Eegiment, sta- 
tioned at St. Yincent. There was not now the same 
objection to the West Indies as before, for he happened 
to be at the very time at Barbadoes, where he had 
gone to look after his estates, which had descended 
to him heavily laden with debt, which the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves rendered still more heavy. He 
joined his regiment accordingly at St. Vincents ; and 






86 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

soon after obtained the appointment of private secre- 
tary to the Governor of the Island. The regiment 
was afterwards moved to New Branswick; and 
Osborne, being disappointed in obtaining a company 
in it, and finding himself (from the twelve years he 
had lost on half-pay) only on a footing with other 
officers so much younger than himself, resolved to 
sell out of the army altogether. He remained in 
England till 1849, when, having lost his wife and 
sold the Barbadoes estate, he determined to emigrate 
to Australia, taking with him his second son, and 
leaving in England his youngest son and his two 
daughters. His eldest son (Philip) was at that time 
a lieutenant in the 41st Native Regiment of the 
Bengal army, and he died the following year in 
Moultan. The eldest daughter (Anne) has since 
married a Mr. Abbott, holding a consular appoint- 
ment in Persia. After Osborne's arrival in Australia, 
we heard by accident that, before leaving England, 
he had contracted a second marriage with a person of 
very inferior station, which he had never communi- 
cated to us. 

On November 23rd this year, Her Majesty an- 
nounced to her privy council assembled for the pur- 
pose, her intended marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe 
Coburg Gotha, the younger son of the reigning duke, 
and her first cousin on her mother's side. 

Parliament met on January 16th, 1840, and the 
Queen, in her speech, again announced her approach- 
ing marriage. In the address in answer, the Duke 
of Wellington insisted on inserting ' Protestant ' 
before ' Prince Albert,' which the Government un- 
willingly acceded to, not that there was any question 



» POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 87 

of the Prince's religion, but the Conservative party 
thought it right to take this opportunity of publicly 
declaring the continued adhesion of the House of 
Lords to the constitutional doctrine that the sove- 
reign should only marry a Protestant. The royal 
marriage took place on February 10th at the Chapel 
Eoyal in St. James's Palace. 

On the first day of the session Sir John Yarde 
Buller, in the House of Commons, gave notice of 
moving a vote of want of confidence in the Ministry. 
The debate commenced upon the 28th, and terminated 
on the 31st, when the motion was lost by 21 votes — 
the Ministers having 308 votes against 287 — but 
they were beaten twice during the month of February 
on questions brought forward by the Opposition, and 
twice again, later in the session, on two different 
stages of a bill introduced by Lord Stanley for the 
registration of voters in Ireland. In the committee, 
however, the discussion on the clauses was so pro- 
tracted that the bill was ultimately dropped. 

In the House of Lords, the Corn Law question was 
again brought forward by Lord Fitzwilliam, whose 
motion for enquiry was negatived by 194 votes 
against 42 ; but this time all the Ministers except 
Lord Melbourne (who spoke and voted against the 
motion), voted with Lord Fitzwilliam. The Irish 
Corporation Bill at length passed through Parliament 
this session, and acts for the union of the two pro- 
vinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and the settle- 
ment of the clergy reserves in those provinces. 

On February 6th I moved for further returns on the 
state of the navy, which brought on a good discussion, 
in which both Lord Melbourne and the Duke of 



88 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Wellington took part. On Lord Strangford's ques- 
tion about sending a French envoy to Monte Yideo, 
I spoke on the importance of the independence of 
Monte Yideo as a means of inlet for our manufactures 
into South America ; and upon Lord Stanhope's 
motion relative to the opium trade (May 12 th), de- 
precating any demand upon the Chinese Government 
of reparation for the opium seized by them at Canton ; 
the just ground for our war with China being their 
demand of the surrender of an eminent person to be 
punished as the murderer of a Chinese killed in an 
affray, and their subsequent attempt to enforce this 
demand by an attack on our shipping. On July 10th, 
upon the Timber Ship Bill going through committee, 
I moved an amendment to prevent the carrying of 
6 deck loads ' at any season of the year, but the Go- 
vernment opposing it on the ground that the Colonial 
Governments of North America had memorialised 
against such an extension of the bill, I did not press 
it. I served this session upon the select committees 
upon ' The Supply of Water to the Metropolis,' c The 
Administration of Justice Bill,' and ' The Petition 
of the Directors of the East India Company ' on the 
restrictions of the Indian trade. This committee, 
which was moved for by Lord Ellenborough, and of 
which he drew the report, was a very interesting 
one. 

The new system of postage, charging by weight 
alone, irrespective of the distance which the letter 
was to be carried, and lowering the charge for a 
letter not exceeding half an ounce in weight to one 
penny, came into operation on January 10th, and the 
privilege of official and parliamentary franking ceased 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 89 

on the same day. The payment by stamps affixed to 
the letter, instead of by money, commenced at the 
same time, but being only voluntary, came only by 
degrees into general use. 

Additional taxes were levied this year on spirits, 
and the custom and excise duties were increased 5 per 
cent, and assessed taxes 10 per cent. 

Hostilities with China commenced early in the 
year ; but the Syrian question threatened for a time 
to involve Europe in general war. The defeat of 
Nerjib and the subsequent defection of the Sultan's 
fleet, alarmed the great powers of Europe for the 
security of his throne, and conferences were held for 
settling the dispute between the Porte and the Pacha 
of Egypt. 

England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia agreed upon 
the extent of the territories which the Porte should 
cede to the Pacha, to be held by him as an hereditary 
vassal, but Prance demanded that the Pacha should 
have a larger extent, including the whole of Syria. 
The other four powers not being able to induce her 
to alter this opinion, in July 1840, signed a treaty 
with the Sultan, pledging themselves to oblige the 
Pacha to accept these terms ; and the English fleet 
under Sir Robert Stopford, with a small Turkish and 
Austrian force, was sent to the coast of Syria to en- 
force the provisions of the treaty. 

Mons. Thiers, who was then at the head of the 
French ministry, piqued at the conclusion of this 
treaty without the concurrence of France, called into 
active service for the army all the disposable men of 
former years, and proposed to add 10,000 men to 
their navy. It was stated afterwards, I think in the 



90 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

French, chambers, that Admiral La Place, who then 
commanded the French fleet stationed in the Archi- 
pelago, proposed to Thiers to attack suddenly the 
English fleet (of inferior numbers) lying in the same 
port, and having destroyed them to proceed to Alex- 
andria, and bring from thence to Toulon the Turkish 
and Egyptian fleets, ready for any measures against 
England. 

Such a plan, executed with the boldness with 
which it was conceived, might very probably have 
succeeded iu inflicting most serious injury upon us. 
Sir Eobert Stopford's fleet, weakened as it was by a 
detached squadron off Alexandria, and unsuspecting 
an attack from the fleet of a power at peace with us, 
might have been so disabled as to have been unable 
to prevent the ulterior movements of the French, and 
we had then no reserve either of army or navy, 
ready to repair the mischief in the Mediterranean, 
or to protect our own shores from insult. 

Thiers, however, had too much honesty, or too 
little daring, to adopt the suggestion, and before the 
close of October he resigned, and was succeeded by 
Guizot, whose policy was more peaceful. In the 
meantime the Pacha of Egypt, not submitting to the 
terms of the Allies, Beyrout was attacked by Sir E. 
Stopford's fleet ; Saide (Sidon) was next taken ; the 
Turkish troops, supported by British and Austrian 
marines, defeated the Egyptians under Ibraham 
Pacha, and on November 3rd, St. Jean d'Acre was 
taken after a bombardment of three and a half hours, 
by eight sail of the line, besides steamers and heavy 
frigates. Its fall was hastened by the explosion of a 
magazine, which, besides killing a number of the 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 91 

garrison, threw down a part of the fortifications on 
the land side. 

These reverses soon after induced the Pacha of 
Egypt to submit to the more severe terms now im- 
posed upon him, which restricted his government to 
Egypt alone. It must be stated to the credit of 
Mehemet Ali, that during the whole time these hos- 
tilities were being carried on against him, he per- 
mitted the mails, to and from India, to pass through 
his territories without any interruption. 

This year was also remarkable for the attempt of 
Louis Napoleon (now Emperor) to possess himself of 
the throne of France. 

In August he landed at Boulogne with about fifty 
followers ; but the troops in garrison there not join- 
ing him, as he had hoped, he was made prisoner, with 
most of his followers, and being tried by the Chamber 
of Peers, he was sentenced to imprisonment for life 
in a fortress. Ham was selected as the place of his 
confinement, from whence he escaped to become, by a 
strange vicissitude of human affairs, President of the 
French republic, and now Emperor of the French. 

This year the remains of Napoleon (the first) were 
brought from St. Helena and deposited in the Hotel 
des Invalides at Paris. 

I was this year elected a trustee of Dr. Busby's 
charity. The qualification is, having been educated 
at Westminster School, and the trustees, thirteen in 
number, are noblemen or gentlemen of some distinc- 
tion, who are considered, though not in law, to be 
guardians of the interests of the school. Their 
duties are to appoint certain lecturers, and apply the 
surplus funds in charity according to the founder's 



92 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

will, and to manage the estates left by the founder 
to provide for these purposes. The trustees meet 
twice a year to transact business, and dine together 
(Dr. Busby having left 101. a year for this purpose) 
in the ' Jerusalem Chamber ' at Westminster Abbey. 
The estates comprise the whole parish of Willen, in 
Northamptonshire, and some farms at Stoke. 

The Royal Naval Female School, for the education 
of the daughters of necessitous naval officers of the 
navy and marines, was founded this year by Admiral 
Sir Thomas Williams, and at his request I became 
one of the vice-presidents, and also a trustee, and 
have acted when in London as chairman of the 
committee. 

Your mother also undertook to be a member of the 
ladies' committee. The school has now existed six- 
teen years, and answers the expectation of its founder 
admirably. In March our house in Great Cumber- 
land Place was robbed by two men, who came under 
pretence of sweeping the kitchen chimney ; and all 
the ornamental things on the drawing-room tables, 
many of them wedding presents to your mother, and 
a large silver inkstand from my study, were stolen. 
The two men were taken up some days afterwards, 
and tried for the robbery, and one of them (who had 
been foreman to the master chimney-sweeper we 
employed) convicted and transported for fifteen 
years. The other could not be identified. No part 
of the stolen goods was ever heard of. 

On June 10th the Queen, while driving with Prince 
Albert in an open carriage up Constitution Hill, was 
twice fired at by a lad named Oxford. I happened 
to be a near spectator of the act. When the Queen's 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 93 



carriage came out of the court of Buckingham 
Palace, I was just opposite on horseback, and waited 
to allow the cortege to pass, and then followed slowly. 
I presently heard a report of firearms, and saw 
smoke, and about thirty seconds afterwards a second 
report, and saw a man standing in the path next to 
the iron rails of the Green Park, in the attitude of 
firing towards the carriage. I rode towards him, 
but before I could reach him he was secured by those 
around him. He made no attempt to escape. The 
Queen's carriage continued its route without stop- 
ping. Another gentleman rode up about the same 
time as myself from the opposite direction. A few 
minutes afterwards a policeman came up and took 
charge of the prisoner, and I then rode homewards. 

The next morning I went to the Home Office to 
tender my evidence, and in the afternoon I was ex- 
amined before the Privy Council by the Attorney- 
General (Campbell), and cross-examined by the 
prisoner, who was very self-possessed, and almost 
contemptuous in his manner. 

The trial of Oxford took place on July 9th, and 
lasted the whole day. I was in court at the Old 
Bailey from ten a.m. till half-past six p.m., but was 
not called as a witness. The jury acquitted the 
prisoner on the ground of insanity. 

Your mother having been in a weak state during 
the early part of the year, we were recommended to 
try the German baths for her recovery ; and on 
July 22nd we set out for Ems, crossing the Channel 
from Dover to Calais, and posting through Lille, 
Mons, Namur, Liege, and Aix-la-Chapelle, to Cologne. 
Thence up the left bank of the Rhine to Coblentz, 






94 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

and crossing the river there, we reached Ems on 
the 29th. 

We remained there till August 19 th, and then pro- 
ceeded on our tour into Switzerland, which we ex- 
tended to Schafhausen ; and visited Zurich, Zug, 
Lucerne, Berne, making an excursion thence to 
Interlacken, Morat, and JSTeuchatel ; thence we 
entered France by the pass of Motier Travers, 
leading to Pontarlier, and so bj Dole and Dijon to 
Paris. We halted at Paris from September 9th till the 
loth, and then returned to England by the way of 
Boulogne. You will find the details of this tour in 
a separate journal; and our tour of this summer 
(1856) has made you personally acquainted with 
much of the country we then passed through. Just 
before leaving England, we had agreed to let Kid- 
brooke for a year to Mr. (now Sir James) Hogg. On 
our return we paid a visit of six weeks to your uncle 
Ellenborough, at Southam. In November your 
cousin Charles Law (the eldest son of the Recorder) 
was married to Lady Eleanor Howard, eldest daughter 
of Lord Wicklow. 

This marriage did not turn out happily ; their 
tempers did not agree, and after some time they 
were separated. He rejoined the army, which he 
had quitted on his marriage, obtaining a cornetcy in 
the 16th Lancers, then in the East Indies; with 
which regiment he was present at the battle of 
Sobraon. 

Soon afterwards he obtained a lieutenancy in an 
infantry regiment ; and after various changes, he is 
now a Lieut. -Colonel, commanding the 66th Regi- 
ment. Lady Eleanor having died in 1852, he last 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 95 

year married a young Irish lady, Miss Fitzgerald 
Day, 1 and has now a son. 

The year 1 841 was remarkable for the first adoption 
by Government of those principles of commercial 
policy which, under the name of free trade, over- 
turned the established system of the country, and 
kept the public mind, both in and out of Parliament, 
in a perpetual agitation for nearly eight years ; when, 
to use the expression of Sir James Graham, 'the 
capital was placed on the column of free trade ' by 
the repeal of the navigation laws. The first step in 
this process did not, however, prove advantageous to 
its promoters. 

Parliament met on January 26th, and the Govern- 
ment soon after brought in a new Bill for the regis- 
tration of voters in Ireland. This Bill was read a 
second time (in the House of Commons) on April 25th, 
and no division was taken on that stage ; but on the 
26th, an amendment moved by Lord Ho wick was 
carried against the Government by a majority of 21 
votes ; and on the 29th the Government was again 
beaten, upon the clause fixing the amount of the 
Parliamentary franchise, by 11 votes — 300 against 
289. Upon this second defeat they abandoned the 
Bill. 

The next day (April 30th) the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer brought forward his Budget, which, not- 
withstanding the additional taxes of the last year, 
showed a deficiency of 1,700,000?. This the Govern- 
ment proposed to supply by lowering the duties on 
foreign sugars and Baltic timber, and substituting a 



Who died on her way from India, May 1S59. 






96 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

fixed duty of 10s. a quarter upon foreign corn for 
the varying duties under the sliding scale ; the fiscal 
principle of this change being, that the reduction in 
the scale of duties would so largely increase the 
quantities of the articles imported as to increase the 
total amount of revenue received from them. Such 
was the defence of the measure made by Lord John 
Russell in his address to the constituency of London 
in the following July, in which he says : ' Upon a 
careful view of our commercial imports, we came to 
the conclusion that, by removing prohibitions and 
lessening restrictions, it was possible to replenish 
the treasury, and at the same time to secure to the 
working classes a greater command of the necessaries 
of life at steady and moderate prices. The first 
measure brought forward on this subject was in- 
tended to give increased freedom of trade to our 
colonies ; but the Cabinet were resolved to apply the 
same principle to our whole commercial policy. 5 

But the opponents of the Government attributed 
to them more selfish views ; that of raising a popular 
cry, to extricate themselves from the difficulties into 
which their general policy had drawn them. 

As Lord John himself continues, ' It has been as- 
serted that our commercial and financial plans were 
brought forward only because we had been defeated 
upon a clause in the Irish Qualification Bill.' Which- 
ever may have been the truth the announcement of 
these measures raised a most hostile feeling against 
their promoters. 

The agriculturalists exclaimed that foreign corn 
would be poured in at a price so low that it would 
no longer be profitable to cultivate wheat ; and thus, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 97 

not only would they be ruined, but the country, left 
at the mercy of the foreign importer, would have to 
pay whatever price he should demand when the native 
produce no longer competed with him in the market ; 
and should war or any other cause cut off the foreign 
supply, the country would be reduced to a state of 
starvation. The proprietors of sugar colonies in 
like manner exclaimed that being already nearly 
ruined by the emancipation of their slaves, the com- 
petition of foreign slave grown sugar would be a 
positive act of injustice to them. The colonial go- 
vernments of our North American colonies and the 
timber merchants were equally hostile to the reduc- 
tion of the duties on Baltic timber ; all these interests, 
united to those who already opposed the Government, 
combined to resist this new policy to the utmost. 
On May 7th, the motion ' that the Speaker leave the 
chair ' for the purpose of going into committee on 
the sugar duties, was opposed by Lord Sandon (now 
Lord Harrowby), the member for Liverpool, and after 
a debate, which lasted eight nights, the amendment 
was carried by a majority of 36 votes, 317 — 281. 
The next day the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave 
notice that he should, on the following Monday, 
move for the usual sugar duties ; and Lord John, 
that on June 4th, he should bring forward the corn 
question. On that Monday (May 24th) Sir Robert 
Peel gave notice of a motion ' that the conduct of the 
Ministers is in violation of the spirit of the Constitu- 
tion,' and on the evening of June 4th, that resolution 
was carried by a majority of one vote, the numbers 
being 312—311. On the 7th Lord John Eussell an- 
nounced that Government would not proceed with 



98 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the Corn Laws. On the 22nd, Parliament was pro- 
rogued by the Queen in person, and the next day 
dissolved. 

We reckoned that we should obtain a majority of 
30 in the new House of Commons ; but the Govern- 
ment still hoped to maintain their own, as was 
shown, not only by the conversation of their friends 
but by several changes of offices which took place at 
this time ; neither party was, however, prepared for 
the actual result. When the returns were all made 
up, the Conservative majority was reckoned at 73, and 
when the new Parliament met in August, and a vote 
of want of confidence was moved in both Houses, as 
an amendment to the address in answer to the 
Queen's speech, it was carried in the House of Com- 
mons by a majority of 91, being 360 — 269. In the 
House of Lords the numbers were 168 — 96. Upon 
this decisive defeat the Ministry of Lord Melbourne 
resigned, and the Queen sent for Sir R. Peel to form a 
new one. This task he completed on September 3rd, 
when he kissed hands as First Lord of the Trea- 
sury. His cabinet was composed principally of his 
former colleagues, with the addition of Lord Stanley 
and Sir James Graham. Your uncle Ellenborough 
was appointed President of the Board of Control; 
which post he resigned a few weeks afterwards for 
that of Governor- General of India ; and on Novem- 
ber 8th, he sailed in the ( Cambrian ' frigate for Cal- 
cutta. When it became evident that a change of 
ministry must occur, I wrote to Sir Robert Peel ask- 
ing him to give me a seat at the new Board of 
Admiralty, as one of the junior Lords. He sent me 
a civil answer stating that one of his greatest diffi- 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 99 

culties was the selection among the numerous well 
qualified persons who offered him their services. 

When the Board was formed I was not among 
those selected, but as those who were placed there 
were all my seniors on the Navy List, I had no just 
cause to complain. The only occasion on which I 
spoke this year in the House of Lords was on the 
vote of thanks to Admiral Sir Eobert Stopford, and 
the forces employed on the coast of Syria ; when I 
compared the capture of Acre with Lord Exmouth's 
attack upon Algiers and Lord Combermere's capture 
of Bhurtpoor, for each of which a step in the Peerage 
was granted; but Sir Robert Stopford received no 
reward from Government beyond the Governorship 
of Greenwich Hospital, which became vacant about 
this time. 

I attended some select committees, but none of 
much interest. Upon the change of Government, I 
sent a copy of my memorandum upon China to the 
new Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Lord Aberdeen ; 
and had a good deal of communication with Lord 
Ellenborough as to the details of operations to be car- 
ried on in that portion of the Yang-tse-kiang, where 
it is crossed by the great canal. The survey of the 
river which I made for Lord Amherst was engraved 
by the Hydrographical office, and that portion of it 
from the Kinshan Island to Nankin, separately on 
the scale of the original drawing ; and it was after- 
wards said to have been of much use to our squadron, 
though little more than an eye sketch, our circum- 
stances having prevented my taking any soundings 
in the river, or accurate cross-bearings. The death 
of Dr. Francia, the dictator of Paraguay, who had 

H 2 



100 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

kept tliat country closed against all foreigners for 
above twenty years, allowing no one to quit it, in- 
duced me to send to Lord Kipon a paper on the ad- 
vantages of endeavouring, now that obstacle was 
removed, to open a trade with that country and the 
other interior provinces of South America, by means 
of the river Paraguay and its territories. 

On February 16th, the House of Lords sat as a Court 
of Justice, for the trial of one of its own members, the 
Earl of Cardigan, for 'felon ion sly shooting at Harvey 
Garnett Phipps Tuckett ' in a duel. Lord Denman, 
Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, presided 
at the trial, being appointed by the Queen as Lord 
High Steward for the occasion. The Attorney Gene- 
ral (Campbell) conducted the prosecution, which 
failed from want of proof of the identity of the per- 
son shot at; and Lord Cardigan was unanimously 
acquitted by his Peers. The House met at a quarter 
before eleven o'clock and adjourned at a quarter past 
five. No measures of importance were introduced 
during the autumnal session, Parliament being pro- 
rogued on October 7th. On November 9th, the Prince 
of Wales was born. The census of the population 
taken this year showed an increase of 2,294,000 since 
the last taken in 1831. The war in the East ter- 
minated in June, by the submission of the Pacha of 
Egypt to the Sultan's terms, that Egypt should be 
governed by his family in the male line, tribute 
being paid, and all acts done in the name of the 
Sultan. 

Your mother had benefited so much from the Ger- 
man waters, that we had projected a tour this sum- 
mer to Pyrmont in Hanover, but the dissolution of 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 101 

Parliament made us give up that plan, and we spent 
the month of July at Tunbridge Wells and then went 
to "Kidbrooke till the meeting of Parliament. In the 
autumn two marriages took place in the family. Your 
aunt Fanny DesYoeux was married on September 29 th 
to Sir Eobert Dallas, and on October 15th, Anne Law 
to Lord Colville. On the morning of November 3rd, 
your grandmother Colchester met with an accident, 
which, at her age, gave us very serious alarm for her 
life ; in turning round suddenly in her drawing-room 
she fell and broke her thigh-bone, close to the hip 
joint. For more than a week we had little hope of 
her having strength to recover, but on the eighth 
day, a wonderful improvement took place, and she 
got steadily better ; and before the close of December 
Pennington declared that the bone had reunited^ 
and from this time all symptoms of dropsy, which had 
been increasing, disappeared. 

This year, Mr. Howe, who had been for many years 
the confidential solicitor of our family, quarrelled 
with his partners and was obliged to retire from busi- 
ness, and soon afterwards his mind became affected. 
In consequence I transferred all the papers relating 
to my marriage settlements to Messrs. Jenkyns and 
Phelps, and have ever since employed them as my 
London solicitors. 

Parliament met on February 3rd, 1842, and Sir 
Eobert Peel lost no time in explaining his scheme of 
commercial and financial policy. On the 9th, he 
proposed his new scale of duties upon corn, continu- 
ing the sliding scale ; but lowering the point at which 
the twenty shilling duty on wheat was fixed, from 
sixty shillings to fifty shillings a quarter. On the 



102 MEMORANDA OF MT LIFE. 

16th, Lord John Russell moved resolutions against 
the system of a sliding scale, which were negatived 
by 349 — 226 ; thus giving the Ministers a majority of 
123 votes upon the greatest question at issue between 
the two parties. A motion made by Mr. C. Yilliers 
on the 24th for a total repeal of the duties upon corn, 
was negatived by 399 — 90. Who could then foresee 
that in four years from that time Sir Eobert Peel 
would himself propose a similar measure and carry it 
through Parliament by large majorities ? 

On March 11th, Sir Robert opened his general plan 
of finance, a complete remodelling of the customs 
laws, all prohibitions of foreign merchandise abolished, 
and a regular scale of duties enacted, giving a diffe- 
rent duty in favour of colonial produce over foreign 
articles of a like nature. 

To meet the loss of revenue arising from these 
changes, as well as to make good the deficit left by 
the late Government, an income-tax of sevenpence 
in the pound was laid on for three years. These 
measures were carried through both Houses by 
large majorities, and Parliament was prorogued on 
August 14th. I spoke several times during this ses- 
sion, but at no great length, except on Lord Lans- 
downe's resolutions to reduce the duties on foreign 
sugar, the object of my remarks being to show that, 
even uuder the free labour system, our East Indian 
and West Indian possessions could produce a sufii- 
cient supply for the consumption of the country at 
moderate prices, but that it was impossible for them 
to compete on equal terms with countries which 
could import fresh supplies of slaves to fill up the 
places of those who perished from over-work. 



103 

Among the other occasions of my addressing* the 
House, was Lord Minto's defence of himself against 
a speech of (Commodore) Sir C. Napier in the House 
of Commons ; when, at Sir Charles's request, I vindi- 
cated certain statements he had made ; and the 
second reading of the Customs Bill, which I sup- 
ported, not as a measure of free trade, but as replacing 
a number of anomalous regulations by one uniform 
system. 

Two attempts were made this year upon the Queen 
by firing a pistol at her while in her carriage. The 
first, on May 30th, by a person of the name of Francis, 
who was tried and found guilty of high treason on 
June 18th ; but the capital punishment was remitted. 
The second was on July 3rd, when a lad in the crowd 
assembled to see the Queen pass through St. James's 
Park on her way to church, snapped a pistol at the 
carriage. The Chartists kept the country in a dis- 
turbed state during the summer. On August 16th, the 
Duke of Wellington was gazetted Commander-in- 
Chief, in the room of Lord Hill, who resigned on 
account of ill health, and was soon after created a 
viscount. 

The same day the Queen issued a proclamation 
against tumultuous assemblages for preventing per- 
sons from working, and troops were sent into the 
disturbed districts round Manchester. With regard 
to our foreign relations, France still held aloof, de- 
clining to ratify the treaty agreed to by the other 
four great Powers of Europe, respecting the slave 
trade. The Opposition carried a larger grant for the 
navy than the Ministers had demanded ; and they 
increased the import duties on British thread and 



104 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

linens. The Duke of Orleans, heir apparent to the 
throne, was killed this year by being thrown out of a 
little carriage between Neuilly and Paris. He was 
very popular in France. His views were considered 
to be more 6 liberal ' than those of his father ; and, 
had he lived, the Eevolution of 1848 might have 
been averted. This year, also, a treaty was con- 
cluded with the United States of North America, by 
which the boundary line between that republic and 
the province of New Brunswick was settled, after 
having remained in dispute ever since the peace of 
1815. This negotiation was conducted on our part 
by Lord Ashburton, who had married an American 
lady, and whose reputation as the head of the great 
commercial house of Baring gave him additional 
weight in the United States. But our affairs in the 
far East engaged the chief attention at this time. 
When your uncle Ellenborough left England to as- 
sume the government of India, the two principal 
objects of his mission were to bring the war with 
China to a successful conclusion, and to withdraw 
from Affghanistan the army which had been sent 
there to place Shah Soojah upon the throne ; and to 
place our intercourse with that country on a perma- 
nent footing of friendship, as a barrier against any 
invasion of our Indian territories from the West. 
For the first purpose he had, while at the Board of 
Control, ordered large reinforcements to our army in 
China, and sent instructions to the naval and mili- 
tary commanders (Sir William Parker and Sir Hugh 
Gough) for the ascent of the Yang-tse-kiang ; our 
operations having hitherto been confined to the cap- 
ture or destruction of places on the coast, which, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 105 

though, eminently successful as detached affairs, had 
produced no visible effect towards inducing the Em- 
peror of. China to accede to our demands. The 
affairs of Afghanistan, though requiring skilful ma- 
nagement, presented no insuperable difficulties. Lord 
Ellenborough arrived off Madras on February 21st, 
1842, and in reply to his question (by signal), What 
news ? received for answer, ' The army of the North- 
west is destroyed.' In November 1841, an insurrec- 
tion broke out in Cabul, in which our former envoy, 
Sir Alexander Burnes, was murdered ; and our troops, 
commanded by General Elphinstone, were blockaded 
in their cantonments at a few miles' distance from the 
city. The brigade of General Sale, which had marched 
a short time previous to occupy Jellalabad, was at- 
tacked in the mountain passes, but succeeded in 
reaching its destination, and nobly maintained itself 
there against all the attacks of the Affghans till the 
following April. 

General Elphinstone, finding himself unable to 
drive away the Affghans who surrounded his camp, 
opened conferences with their leaders (the principal 
of whom was Akbar Khan, a son of Dost Mahommed,) 
for a convention by which our forces should retire 
unmolested into our own territories. 

At one of these conferences Sir William Mac- 
naughten was treacherously seized and murdered by 
the Affghans ; but ultimately an arrangement was 
concluded, and our troops moved off; but no sooner 
had they entered the mountain passes than they were 
attacked on all sides, and, with the exception of the 
ladies and some of the principal officers who surren- 
dered to Akbar Khan, cut off to a man — a single 



106 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 






medical officer being" the only individual who reached 
Jellalabad. Lord Ellenborough did not land at Ma- 
dras, but after visiting some troops embarked as re- 
inforcements for China, on board ships then lying in 
Madras Roads, he proceeded the same day to Calcutta, 
which he reached on the 28th, and immediately as- 
sumed the government. From thence, as soon as he 
had made himself master of the state of affairs, he 
proceeded, notwithstanding the unfavourable season, 
to Allahabad, in order to be nearer the scene of opera- 
tions. This place he reached before the end of April, 
and remained till after the rainy season, when he 
moved on to Simla. His plans were so skilfully ar- 
ranged and so ably executed, that before the close of 
September General Pollock, advancing from Peshawar, 
forced the Khybar Pass, relieved the garrison of Jel- 
lalabad (which a few days previously had defeated 
Akbar Khan), and after making some halt there, ad- 
vanced upon Cabul in spite of an obstinate resistance, 
and reached that city just as General iNott, who had 
moved in the opposite direction from Candahar, and 
had taken and dismantled the fortress of Ghuznee on 
his way, appeared also before it ; and their united 
forces took possession without opposition. On the 
very same day that the news of this complete success 
in Afghanistan reached the Governor- General at 
Simla, intelligence arrived from China that the Em- 
peror had submitted to our demands, and that peace 
had been signed under the walls of Nankin. 

Thus, within seven months from the day on which 
he landed in Calcutta, Lord Ellenborough had raised 
our affairs in India from the lowest state of despon- 
dency to that of the highest triumph. The peace of 



1833 TO 1852. 107 

Nankin had been cansed entirely by the attack npon 
the internal commnnications of the country. Onr 
fleet crossed the flats which extend across the 
entrance of the Yang-tse-Kiang on June 13th. On 
the 16th the town of Woo-sung, at the entrance of 
the river of that name, was taken ; and on the 19th, 
Shanghae, situated higher np the same river. After 
these operations, our fleet, numbering above seventy 
sail of ships of war and transports, continued to 
ascend the great river, never before navigated by 
any European vessel, till they reached the city of 
Tehing-kiang-foo, on its right bank, at the point 
where the imperial canal crosses it ; there the troops 
were landed, and the city taken by storm on July 21st. 
Leaving a garrison, the expedition continued to 
ascend the river till it reached Nankin, where troops 
were again landed, and preparations made for 
attacking the place ; but the Chinese commissioners 
now made offers to treat for peace, and terms were 
agreed to on August 29th, by which our trade was 
extended to Amoy, Foo-choo-foo, Ningpo, and 
Shanghae, and a large indemnity paid to us for the 
expenses of the war, and for the opium belonging 
to British merchants which had been confiscated at 
Canton by the Viceroy Lin. 

The honour of the British arms in Afghanistan 
being now retrieved, and Shah Soojah having been 
murdered by his subjects during the time of our ex- 
pulsion from Cabul, Lord Ellenborough issued orders 
for the return of the army within our own territories, 
leaving the Affghans to select their own rulers. On 
December 18th our troops crossed the Sutlege at 
Ferozepoor, bringing with them as a trophy of their 



108 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

victory the famous sandal-wood gates of the Temple 
of Somnauth, which, 800 years before, Mahmood, of 
Ghuznee, had taken from thence as a monument of 
his victories over the Hindoos, and affixed them to 
his tomb at Ghuznee, where they had remained till 
now, taken from thence by our army, under General 
Kott. At the bridge over the Sutlege, the victorious 
army was received by the Governor- General in great 
state. 

Dost Mahommed was shortly afterwards released 
unconditionally, and escorted to Peshawur, where he 
was received by his countrymen, and again became 
ruler at Cabul. But though your uncle's measures 
had been crowned with such complete success, and 
those which he subsequently pursued towards the 
Ameers of Scinde and the Mahratta Government of 
Gwalior proved equally successful, he was not allowed 
to enjoy in peace the reputation which they con- 
ferred ; but he was persecuted during the whole 
period of his government by the newspaper press of 
India, and a large portion of that in England, as 
well as by his political opponents in both Houses of 
Parliament. His motives were misconstrued, the 
language of his public addresses assailed with ridi- 
cule, and the success of his measures, which could 
not be denied, ascribed to those who were the instru- 
ments of carrying them out. The origin of this 
abuse was his refusal to supply the Indian news- 
papers, as had been done by his predecessor, with 
information upon every subject they desired, however 
important he might consider it to the success of his 
measures to keep it secret, and his reprimand to 
some of the civil servants of the Government, who 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 109 

had, as lie conceived, betrayed their trust by divulg- 
ing matters which came to their knowledge through 
their official position. This, and a greater attention 
to the military service than had before been given by 
Governors-General, affronted the civilians, and the 
newspaper editors determined as a body to revenge 
the insult put upon them by assailing all his 
measures. This was told by one of them to the 
Prussian Baron Yon Orlich, who was a passenger in 
the same steamer returning to Europe, and by Yon 
Orlich to us. 

Two proclamations which Lord Ellenborough pub- 
lished at this time, were made the cause of violent 
attacks. The first, announcing the return of the 
army from Affghanistan, alluded to our previous 
reverses there, as c only to be exceeded by the errors 
which had caused them.' This passage the friends 
of the Whig Government construed as applying to 
their policy towards that country, and determined to 
resent it accordingly. 

The second, which was addressed to the Eajpoot 
Princes of India, announced to them, in phraseology 
suited to their ears, that our army was bringing back 
with it the gates of Somnauth, so long the trophy of 
Affghan victories ; but which had now been recovered 
by the triumph of our arms, and was to be received 
by them, and forwarded with due honour through 
their territories, for the purpose of being placed in 
the ' restored Temple of Somnauth.' The wording 
of this proclamation was assailed with every species 
of ridicule ; it was further asserted that this parade 
of giving to Hindoos a trophy taken from the 
Mahometans would create discontent in the minds 



110 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

of our Mahometan Sepoys ; above all, it was at- 
tempted to show that this proclamation was an 
insnlt to Christianity, as it announced the intended 
restoration of a Pagan temple ; both these assertions 
arising from an ignorance of Indian history, as the 
Temple of Somnauth had been restored, though not 
in its ancient magnificence, many years ago by the 
celebrated Alliah Bhye, widow of one of the Holkars ; 
and as to ill feeling between Mahometan and Hin- 
doo on this account, it was well known that the 
Indians of both religions, looked alike upon the 
Affghan, as a natural enemy whose defeat was their 
safety. 

The gates, however, never arrived at the temple, 
but are deposited in the great hall of the palace at 
Agra. Had Sir Eobert Peel met the first attack 
upon Lord Ellenborough in Parliament in a manly 
way, merely saying in public what he wrote in pri- 
vate, that, so far as he had received the despatches, 
he was satisfied with the measures of the Governor- 
General, much that followed would probably have 
been prevented ; but he expressed ignorance as to the 
facts charged, and thus encouraged further attacks, 
which were made unsparingly during the recess of 
Parliament, when no public reply could be given to 
them. This obliged your uncle's private friends 
to bestir themselves the more, and I was much occu- 
pied from this time to the close of Lord Ellen- 
borough's government in India in getting up the 
various subjects which were made grounds of attack, 
to be ready to speak in Parliament, or answer any 
newspaper statements. I also wrote to him by every 
monthly mail, with a resume of the news of the month ; 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. HI 

and your uncle kept up a regular correspondence 
with jour mother or myself, which she filed, and you 
will find very interesting to peruse. She also col- 
lected the newspaper reports of speeches, and other 
statements regarding the measures of his govern- 
ment. 

The principal event this year in our own family 
was the birth, on the morning of Sunday, Feb- 
ruary 13th, of a little boy, who was baptised the same 
afternoon by the names of Reginald Charles Edward. 
On the 16th his birth was registered by Mr. Knapp, 
the deputy registrar of the district ; and on 
March 17th he was christened at St. Mary's Church, 
Bryanston Square, by the rector, Dr. Dibden. The 
sponsors were the Earl De La Warr, Lord Ellen- 
borough and Lady Ellenborough, Lord Colville being 
proxy for Lord Ellenborough. Your cousin George 
Dallas was born on the 9th of the following October. 

An extraordinary panic occurred in March among 
the lower class of Irish in London, in consequence of 
a pretended prophecy that London would be destroyed 
by an earthquake on March 16th. Many quitted the 
city the day before, and others passed the whole of 
that day outside of it, to avoid the expected 
destruction. 

As 1842 had been marked by the birth of heirs to 
two branches of your mother's family, so 1843 was 
to be held in remembrance for the loss of her they 
looked upon as its head. Your grandmother Ellen- 
borough was taken dangerously ill in the month of 
April, but she rallied partially from that attack, and 
survived till August 16th, when she expired at her 
house in Stratford Place. Your mother had come up 



112 MEMOKANDA OF MY LIFE. 

just before from Putney Heath, where we had taken 
a house for three months, in order to be near if any- 
thing occurred. But no immediate danger was appre- 
hended by the physicians who had seen Lady Ellen- 
borough that morning, and had not left the house 
when your mother arrived ; but immediately after- 
wards she became faint, and sunk without a struggle. 
On the 23rd she was buried in the churchyard at 
Wingfield. 

In the previous May your great aunt, Mrs. Agnes 
Gibbes, had died at the age of eighty-one, and was 
buried in the same vault, belonging to the old church 
of Marylebone, which already held the remains of 
her mother, Lady Gibbes, and her elder brother, Mr. 
Philip Gibbes, and was four yeaxs later to receive 
those of her elder sister, your grandmother Colchester. 
Mrs. Gibbes had become blind for some time before 
her death. She left her property in trust for the 
children of her nephew, Sir Osborne Gibbes ; a trust 
which gave much occupation to her executors, Mr. 
Spencer Walpole and myself, and which is not yet 
terminated. 

The parliamentary session of 1843 opened on 
February 1st, and on March 9th the Opposition reso- 
lutions of censure on Lord Ellenborough's proclama- 
tions were moved in both Houses, by Lord Clanri- 
carde in the Lords, and by Mr. Vernon Smith in the 
Commons, and were in both places negatived by 
large majorities. I spoke at some length in vindica- 
tion of the policy contained in those proclamations, 
as well as of the expressions more particularly at- 
tacked. The only Government measure of this 
session relating to commercial duties, was one for 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 113 

the admission of corn into Canada from the United 
States at a low fixed duty, which was objected to by 
the extremes of both parties, but carried by large 
majorities. Motions for enquiry into the laws for 
the importation of corn into the United Kingdom, 
-were negatived by similar majorities, as were those 
for reducing the duties on foreign sugars. Besides 
my speech on Lord Clanricarde's motion, I addressed 
the House shortly on three occasions during this 
session : during the debate upon the Address to the 
Throne at the opening of the session relative to the 
affairs of India and China ; upon Lord Brougham's 
vote of thanks to Lord Ashburton for concluding 
the treaty of Washington ; and against the (6th) 
clause in Lord Brougham's Slavery Suppression Bill, 
which made it penal to hire any slave, even in coun- 
tries as Brazil, where no other labourers can be pro- 
cured, and where consequently grievous injury might 
arise to mining and other property in cases of emer- 
gency, without any benefit to the negro. 

On April 1st, we dined with Lord Haddington, and 
met Sir Thomas Herbert and Sir Thomas Bourchier, 
who had just returned from China, where they had 
been in command of ships, and they both spoke to 
me of my plan for intercepting the internal com- 
munications of China as the best they had seen ; 
and also of the accuracy of my memo, and chart 
of the Yang-tse-kiang between the Golden Island 
and Nankin. On July 3rd, which was kept as the 
Queen's birthday, I dined at the full-dress dinner 
given by Sir R. Peel, as Prime Minister ; the party 
consisted of twenty-four persons, all, except the 
host, peers or foreigners of distinction. 

I 



114 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

On July 11, we dined with the Duke of Cleveland, 
to meet the King of Hanover. Sir George Murray, 
who sat next to me, «fcold me an anecdote of the 
Duke of Wellington (also one of this dinner party), 
resembling one told of Sir Robert Walpole. 

While the Duke's head-quarters were at Cambray, 
between 1815 and 1818, Sir George being Quarter- 
master-General of the British Army of Occupation, 
the Duke one evening asked him to read aloud to 
him ; and on Sir George enquiring whether he Avouid 
prefer some historical work, the Duke replied, ' ~No ; 
read me a novel : it is much more entertaining, and 
quite as true ' 

In August the Queen embarked on board her yacht 
at Southampton, and after visiting We} r mouth, Ply- 
mouth, and Falmouth, proceeded to Treport in Nor- 
mandy, to pay a visit to King Louis Philippe, at his 
Chateau of Eu. 

We let Kidbrooke this year for three months, to 
a Mr. Lee, from the commencement of August, and 
took a house on Putney-heath (Mr. Colquhoun's) for a 
similar period, in order to be near Lady Ellenborough, 
not foreseeing how shortly her life would terminate. 

This spring I purchased Water's land at Forest 
Row for 41 01., and in June, Burnt House Farm, one 
of those belonging to Mr. J. Wright, which were sold 
by auction, was knocked down to me for 1,000Z. 

At the beginning of November we went down to 
Kidbrooke for a fortnight, and finally arranged our 
purposed alterations of the house with our architect, 
Mr. William Moseley. 

This year a change was made in the uniform of the 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 115 

navy, our white facings, which had been changed to 
red by King William IY. being restored. 

In the beginning of January 1844, we were obliged 
suddenly to quit our house in Great Cumberland 
Place, where we thought ourselves established for 
the rest of our lives ; but such evident symptoms of a 
subsidence in the walls appeared, that we sent for 
Mr. Moseley, and on opening the foundation, the 
ground below was found to be so soft that it was 
necessary immediately to lay a new foundation of 
concrete under the settlement, and take out the base 
of the wall and underpin it. We therefore removed 
the same day to an hotel, and Kidbrooke not being 
in a state to receive us, we hired a small house in 
South Street (No. 33), having a good view over Hyde 
Park, till August, to give us time to look out for a 
more permanent residence, as we determined not to 
return to Great Cumberland Place ; and we were so 
fortunate as to find a purchaser for it before the .end 
of February, who gave for the lease the same sum 
which we had paid for it. Before leaving town for 
the autumn, we took a lease of 7, Charles Street, 
Berkeley Square, for three years. Parliament opened 
on February 1st, and on the first night of the session 
Sir Eobert Peel announced his intention not to make 
any change in the Corn Laws ; and a motion made 
late in the session by Mr. C. Yilliers to abolish them 
was negatived by 328 — 124 votes. On February 8th, 
Lord Ashley, in the House of Commons, made a 
motion for the restoration of the Ameers of Spinde, 
who had been deposed, by the orders of Lord Ellen- 
borough, for their treacherous conduct, but he found 
only 62 supporters, the motion being negatived by 

I 2 



116 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

202—62. On the 12th, the thanks of Parliament 
were voted to Sir Charles Napier and the Army of 
the Scinde, for their victories over the Ameers. 
Though Lord Ellen borough's measures in India had 
been eminently successful, the independent tone of 
his correspondence with the Court of Directors (who 
he considered as sometimes looking more to their 
own interests than to that of the country over which 
they ruled), had given offence to that body, and in 
the beginning of this year they resolved to exercise 
their right of removing him. On April 22nd 
(Monday), the Duke of Wellington mentioned to me 
privately in the House of Lords that a motion was to 
be made on the following Wednesday in the Court of 
Directors to that effect ; and he offered to show me 
the letter he had written to them dissuading them 
from such a step. This I thankfully accepted, and on 
the next day the Duke sent me, for perusal, the draft 
of his letter, dated March 30th, recommending the 
Directors to leave the redress of their grievances 
to the Queen's Government, who were equally con- 
cerned in any disrespect shown by the Governor- 
General. The Duke also pointed out the difficulty 
the Court might find in inducing any fitting- person 
to accept the office, after such treatment of his pre- 
decessor ; and reminded them that there were many 
instances on record where Sovereigns had been 
obliged to continue in office able statesmen, though 
personally disagreeable to them. Notwithstanding 
the good sense of the Duke's letter and the weight 
of his personal character, the Directors persevered in 
their determination, and on the 24th passed their 
resolution of recall. The 25th was kept as the 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 117 

Queen's birthday, and I dined with Sir Robert Peel 
at his official dinner. I happened to go down stairs 
the last of the company, and Sir Eobert Peel kept 
me back a moment and said, ' You have heard what 
these men have done,' and on my replying that I had 
heard it, he added, ' We have strongly protested 
against it.' The decision of the Court becoming 
known, on the 26th, as soon as the two Houses met, 
questions were put by members of the Opposition to 
the Government as to the truth of the report, and 
the fact was then announced by the Government ; but 
in the Lords I immediately enquired whether the 
Government concurred in the act of the Directors ; 
the reply was that it had not the approbation of Her 
Majesty's Government. The Duke of Wellington, be- 
fore the business of the House began, said to me, ' It 
is disgusting ; ' but at the same time recommended 
Lord Ellenborough's friends to be quiet for the pre- 
sent, and that he would tell me when he thought the 
time came to do anything. On the 29th the Duke 
called me to him in the House, and asked me whether 
I meant to put any further questions, as he under- 
stood some would be asked in the House of Commons, 
and he was prepared to give his opinion. I accord- 
ingly put some question, and the Duke spoke at 
length against 'the great indiscretion of the Di- 
rectors,' but declined to lay on the table their reasons, 
merely stating that Government had not considered 
them valid, and had remonstrated. On May 6th, in 
riding down to the House of Lords, I met the Duke, 
who then told me that on the previous Thursday 
(the 2nd) he had written a letter which he thought 
would, if delivered in time, have induced the Directors 



118 MEMOKAXDA OF MY LIFE. 

to rescind the recall of Lord Ellenborough ; lie did 
not say what had delayed the delivery. On the 7th 
Lord Kbrmanby, in the House of Lords, put a 
question to the Government as to the production of 
papers connected with the recall. Lord Ripon (Pre- 
sident of the Board of Control) refused to lay any 
papers before the House, upon which I spoke, re- 
gretting this course as injurious to Lord Ellen- 
borough. The same evening Mr. Hume, in the 
House of Commons, put a similar question with 
like success, but Sir Eobert Peel, in refusing papers, 
praised Lord Ellenborough's measures, and said that 
he had done nothing to forfeit the confidence of Her 
Majesty's Government; and the sincerity of this 
opinion they proved by creating him, immediately 
upon his arrival in England in the following October, 
Earl of Ellenborough and Viscount Southam ; and 
the Queen invited him to Windsor, and conferred on 
him the Grand Cross of the Civil Division of the 
Order of the Bath. 

The only debate of importance in which I took 
part this session was that on (June 13th) Lord Mont- 
eagle's motion for a committee on our import duties, 
when I spoke in favour of protecting the produce of 
our colonies. I was, however, placed upon a very 
interesting select committee for enquiring into the 
system of opening letters at the General Post Office. 
"VVe met on July 11th, and chose Lord Colborne as 
chairman, and sate upon nine subsequent days, closing 
our labours on August 1st with a short report. Be- 
sides the officers of the Post Office, we examined the 
Secretary of State for the Home Department, Sir 
James Graham, and two of his predecessors, Lord 



1833 TO 1852. 119 

Melbourne and Lord Jolm Russell, and the Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs, Lord Aberdeen, and his pre- 
decessor, Lord Palmerston. They all concurred in 
the necessity of keeping this power in the hands of 
the Secretary of State, but it appeared that there 
had been a secret department, under the Foreign 
Office, to which all official letters from foreign 
ministers and coming to them from abroad through 
the Post Office, were always sent for the purpose of 
being opened and read, before delivering them to 
their address. This custom appeared to have pre- 
vailed at least since the year 1735, but it was not 
defended as justifiable or even advantageous, it being 
known that letters were sometimes written expressly 
with the view of being opened. A similar custom 
prevails abroad, and a curious instance was given 
where one of our diplomatists wrote a letter to his 
own Government, through the Dutch post office, 
stating that if he did not carry a certain point at the 
next Conference, he should demand his passports — ■ 
feeling assured that the letter would be opened, and 
the implied threat, which he was not authorised to 
make, would induce the Dutch negotiator to give 
way ; and the event justified his opinion. As this 
committee was a secret one, the evidence was not 
printed ; but you will find my notes of it among my 
papers. The enquiry was caused by a petition of 
Sig. Mazzini, an Italian refugee, afterwards famous 
for his part in the Roman Revolution of 1848, then 
residing in London, who complained that his letters 
were opened, with a view of enabling the Austrian 
Government to arrest his correspondents. 

The House of Lords in its judicial capacity gave 






120 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

two very important decisions this session. The first 
was upon a claim made by Sir Augustus D'Este to 
the Dukedom of Sussex ; which involved also a claim 
to a contingent succession to the Crown, Sir Augustus 
being the undoubted son of the late Duke of Sussex, 
uncle to the Queen, by a marriage celebrated abroad 
with Lady Augusta Murray, daughter of the Earl of 
Dunmore. This marriage had never been recognised 
by the King, as being contrary to the Eoyal Marriage 
Act, which requires the king's consent; and Lady 
Augusta, after an ineffectual attempt to be acknow- 
ledged in society, resigned herself to the title of 
Countess d'Ameland. 

The Duke of Sussex having at length died in 1843, her 
son claimed the peerage as descending to him. The 
House, after hearing the case fully, rejected the claim. 
The second was the case of Daniel O'Connell and 
others for a conspiracy to overturn the Government 
in Ireland. A verdict of guilty being passed by the 
j ury at Dublin in the month of February, a new trial 
was asked for and refused by the Irish Court of 
Queen's Bench, the judges being unanimous. Sen- 
tence was passed and the parties imprisoned. Ap- 
peal was then made to the House of Lords by writ of 
error, the case heard, and a majority of the English 
judges, whose opinion was asked by the House, gave 
it in affirmation of the decision of the Court of Queen's 
Bench in Ireland. Nevertheless, when the judgment 
of the House was to be given, it, following the opi- 
nion of the majority of ' the Law Lords,' reversed the 
sentence. In favour of the refusal were Lord Den- 
man, Chief Justice ; Lord Cottenham, and Lord 
Campbell ; against it were Lord Lyndhurst, Chan- 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1S33 TO 1852. Vzl 

cellor ; and Lord Brougham. None of the lay peers 
present having attended the whole of the proceedings 
during the appeal, the Duke of Wellington recom- 
mended them to abstain from voting. I was not 
present, as we had previously gone down to Kid- 
brooke. Sir Henry Hardinge was appointed in May 
Governor- General of India. 

In June, the Emperor of Eussia and the King of 
Saxony visited England ; and later in the year the 
King of the Erench visited our Queen. 

We went down to Kidbrooke for the summer early 
in August, and the Henry Laws and Dallases came 
to us in September. Lord Ellenborough came to 
us on November 15th, and the good people of Forest 
Row (entirely of their own accord) gave him a public 
welcome. A party with flags and music met him at 
the bridge over the Medway, and escorted him to an 
arch of laurels and other evergreens placed across the 
road opposite the Swan, where an address was pre- 
sented to him ; and after he had given his answer, the 
whole assemblage accompanied him, cheering, to the 
entrance of the park. At East Grinstead the church 
bells were rung as he passed through the town. We 
had got Lord Amherst, a former Governor-General, 
and the Colvilles to meet him. Our joy at your uncle's 
return was, however, much damped by the death of 
your uncle William's first wife (nee Augusta Graves), 
who expired on October 15th, a few days after giving 
birth to a daughter. In December, Miss Addington 
came to us to obtain from my father's diary materials 
for the life of her father, Lord Sidmouth, which was 
preparing by the Dean of Norwich. On January 1 6th, 
this year, your cousin Theodosia Dallas was born. 



122 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

The Parliamentary Session of 1845 was opened by 
the Queen in person on February 4th, and lasted till 
August 9th. 

Mr. Gladstone, who had just before resigned his 
seat in the cabinet, explained on the first day that 
the measures to be proposed for education in Ireland 
were the cause of his resignation. He nevertheless 
spoke in favour of the Maynooth Bill on April 18th. 
He was succeeded as President of the Board of Trade 
by Lord Dalhousie. On February 14th Sir Robert 
Peel opened his plan of finance for the year. The 
period of three years for which the income-tax had 
been imposed was now expiring, and as this tax 
was generally considered a tvar-tax, and to have been 
now imposed solely for the purpose of supplying the 
deficiency in the revenue which had been left by Lord 
Melbourne's Government, there existed a hope that 
it would be permitted to expire. 

Sir Robert Peel, however, announced his intention 
to renew it for another three years, and instead to 
remit duties to the amount of more than 3,000,000 1. 
by reducing those on sugar imported from foreign 
countries, abolishing those on the import of raw 
cotton, and upon all articles exported ; the excise 
duties on auctions and on glass ; and the import duty 
on four hundred small articles. Pour thousand men 
were to be added to the navy. 

A Bill for admitting persons professing the Jewish 
faith into corporations was read a second time in the 
House of Lords on March 10th. The Bill was not 
objectionable in its provisions, but the arguments 
by which it was supported by the Lord Chancellor 
(Lyndhurst) who introduced it were such, that I felt 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 123 

compelled to rise in my place and state that, in 
agreeing to admit Jews to municipal offices, I must 
guard myself against being supposed to consider 
them as eligible for the further admission to legis- 
lative power. The great battle-field of the session 
was the Bill introduced by the Government for 
making the grant to Maynooth College a permanent 
endowment, instead of being dependent upon an 
annual vote of Parliament ; and also for a present 
grant of 30,000/. to complete and enlarge the build- 
ings of the existing college. In the House of Com- 
mons the motion for leave to bring in the Bill was 
carried by 216 against 114 votes. The debate upon 
the second reading lasted seven nights, and it was 
carried (on April 18th) by 323 against 176. On April 
24th, Mr. Ward moved a resolution that the money 
for Maynooth should be taken from the revenue of 
the Irish Church ; this was negatived by 322 against 
148, and on May 21st the third reading was carried 
by 317 against 184. In the House of Lords, the 
debate on the second reading lasted three nights, and 
it was carried by 155 against 57. The third reading 
on June 16th by 181 against 50. 

Sir James Graham, in the House of Commons on 
May 9th, opened the Government plan for erecting 
three colleges in Ireland — at Belfast, Cork, and Gal- 
way — for the joint education of Protestants and Ro- 
man Catholics. A vote of 100,000Z. was proposed for 
establishing them, and 6,000Z. a year each for their 
maintenance. 

These colleges obtained the nickname of the 
' godless colleges,' as no professors of Theology were 
to form part of the establishment, and they were 






124 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

violently opposed by the more bigoted of the Ro- 
mish bishops ; but they have worked well as a means 
of educating together young men of different reli- 
gious creeds, and they have produced scholars who 
have been very successful in competing with other 
plans of education. On June 10th, Mr. Charles 
Yilliers brought forward his usual motion against the 
Corn-laws, which, as usual, was negatived by a large 
majority — 254 votes against 122. The scene was to 
change next session, when the cause of abolition was 
taken up by other hands who had hitherto most 
vehemently opposed it. But before entering upon that 
great question, I must revert to the other topics of 
this year. 

In foreign affairs the chief events were the volun- 
tary annexation of Texas to the United States of 
North America, which thus ceased to be an inde- 
pendent republic, and sunk into a State of the Union. 

The President of the United States, in his message 
to Congress, maintained the exclusive right of the 
United States to the whole of the Oregon territory, 
the northern portion of which England claimed by 
right of discovery. The question was ultimately 
settled by negotiation, when the parallel of the forty- 
ninth degree of latitude was settled as the boundary 
line between the two nations as far as the sea, when 
it was to follow the middle of the Strait of Juen-de- 
Fuca to the ocean, leaving the whole of Vancouver's 
Island to England. Some years later this latter line 
again became the ground of dispute between the two 
Governments. In the course of this summer the first 
periodical mail to China was established, to reach 
Hong Kong in fifty days. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 125 

On June 6th, the Queen gave a bal costume at 
Buckingham Palace, the period of George II. from 
1740-50. Your mother and myself were invited, and 
it was a striking sight. Lord Selkirk told me that 
he wore the very coat in which his grandfather had 
appeared at the court of George the Second. 

I was this year elected President of the Royal 
Geographical Society at the annual meeting in May. 
The office is for two years, and its principal duties 
were to preside at the meetings of the council, and 
the evening meetings of the members of the society, 
which are held once a fortnight during the session, 
which lasts from November till June, and to deliver 
the address at the annual meeting. This address 
should contain a statement of the progress of geo- 
graphy during the year, both by the discoveries of 
travellers and the publication of books and maps. 
The materials for the address are prepared by the 
secretary from the communications of the foreign 
corresponding members and his own researches. 

The president has also to deliver the medals 
awarded by the society to distinguished explorers. The 
society at that time held its meetings at 3, Waterloo 
Place, and comprised between 600 and 700 members. 
Its finances were in a low state, which caused some 
discontent among a portion of the members, and gave 
much anxious deliberation to the Council; but at 
length good feeling was restored, and by degrees the 
society relieved itself from its difficulties, and has 
now (1861) become most flourishing. 

In the autumn of this year your grandmother Col- 
chester's sight failed rapidly, and she was no longer 
able to read or write, but her mind continued perfect, 



126 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

and, even under these trying circumstances, she kept 
up her usual cheerfulness. Tour good uncle, the 
Bishop of Bath and Wells, died in the September of 
this year, and in October the Eecorder lost another 
daughter Emily, by the same disease which proved so 
fatal to his family. In December Sir Osborne Gibbes 
came to Kidbrooke for a few days, with his eldest son, 
Philip, just about to start for India, from which, alas ! 
he was never to return ; having died at an outstation 
near Moultan, where he was quartered with his Regi- 
ment, the 41st Bengal Infantry. 

The Queen this year made a short visit to Germany, 
leaving England August 9th, and returning Septem- 
ber 10th. 

This summer the disease in the potato crop, which 
has since become established in a more or less severe 
form, appeared for the first time in England, having 
previously visited Belgium. It spread through the 
southern and western counties, thence to Wales, and 
later in the year to Ireland, where it caused great 
alarm, the potato being the staple food of the pea- 
santry; and two years later, it produced that famine 
which desolated a large portion of that country ; 
causing, by deaths and by emigration, a reduction 
of more than one million in its population, and a con- 
sequent revolution in the mode of cultivation, and in 
the tenure of land. 

Rumours began to circulaie in the autumn, that 
Government were alarmed at the spread and possible 
consequences of this disease ; and were deliberating 
upon some relaxation in the duties upon the impor- 
tation of corn in order to meet the evil. At the end 
of November, Lord John Russell addressed a letter 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 18-52. 127 

to his constituents (City of London), calling upon 
them to petition for a total repeal of the Corn Laws, 
and on December 6th, an article appeared in the 
Times, asserting that the Ministers meant to assemble 
Parliament early in the ensuing January, preparatory 
to a repeal of those laws. This of course raised 
public curiosity to the highest pitch ; but nothing 
certain was known to us who were staying quietly at 
Kidbrooke, till the 11th, when I received a note from 
Lord Delaware with these words, ' Times is right and 
Ministers are out, 5 ' and the same day the newspapers 
announced that the resignation of all the Ministers 
had been tendered to the Queen, and accepted at a 
Council held at Osborne ; but the reasons for this 
unexpected step were not assigned. 

Lord John Russell was sent for by the Queen, and, 
after consulting his political friends, undertook to 
form a Ministry ; but on the 20th he found himself 
obliged to relinquish his undertaking ; and the Queen 
again sent for Sir Robert Peel, and on the 23rd he 
again resumed the Government with the same 
Cabinet, excepting Lord Stanley, who declined, and 
Lord Wharncliffe, who had died in the interval. Lord 
Stanley's place, Secretary for the Colonies, was filled 
by Gladstone ; and Lord WharnclinVs Privy Seal by 
Lord Haddington, who vacated the Admiralty, which 
was filled by your uncle Ellenborough. Lord Ellen- 
borough had up to the last objected to Peel's yielding 
to the clamour of the opponents of the Corn Laws ; 
but on December 24th he wrote to your mother, that 
Peel had sent for him, and that he was returning to 
Southam ( with a box of papers.' Two days later, 
announcing his accession to Peel's government, he 



128 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

added, that lie considered he ' must be right in ad- 
hering to the Duke of Wellington.' 

Parliament opened on January 22nd, 1846. In the 
House of Lords the Duke of Wellington declined to 
give any explanation of the late resignation of the 
Ministry, on the ground of not having the Queen's 
permission to do so. Lord Stanley stated that, under 
these circumstances, he should only say, that seeing no 
cause to change his previous opinions on Free Trade, 
he did not consider it consistent with his honour 
to remain in the government with their new views. 
In the House of Commons there were full explana- 
tions, the only difference between Peel and Lord John 
Pussell now being the question of immediate or gra- 
dual repeal of the Corn Laws ; Peel asserting that 
experience of the effects of relaxing duties, in the two 
last years, have completely changed his views as to 
protection. This produced a biting speech from 
D'Israeli, who from this time stood forward as a prin- 
cipal debater on the side of the protectionist party. 
The lead of the party was, however, given to Lord 
George Bentinck, who, though he had been long in 
Parliament, had up to this time hardly ever taken 
part in the debates ; and was better known on the 
turf than in politics. Though not a fluent speaker, 
he now showed great energy in mastering the details 
of his subject, readiness in financial calculations, and 
a willingness to impart his information and encourage 
the exertions of "the younger members of his party 
These qualities, joined to great boldness towards 
Lis opponents, made him very useful to the protec- 
tionists, who, though still numerous in the House 
of Commons, found themselves deserted by all their 
political chiefs. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 129 

On the 26th, explanations were made in the House 
of Lords, but the only reason given by the Duke of 
Wellington for returning to office was, that Peel 
having determined to do so, he would not desert him, 
and that he thought a government having the Sove- 
reign's confidence, was of more consequence than 
any opinion held by any man. Lord Aberdeen had 
agreed with Peel from the beginning. 

Sir Robert Peel opened his new commercial scheme 
on the 27th, It abolished all remaining duties on 
foreign raw produce, and reduced those on manu- 
factured articles generally from twenty per cent, to 
ten per cent. Differential duties on foreign sugar were 
reduced to 3s. 6d. per cwt. Live animals and vega- 
tables to be admitted duty free. One half the exist- 
ing duties on foreign butter, cheese, bacon, and hops, 
to be taken off, and the duties on corn to be imme- 
diately reduced, and abolished on February 1st, 
1849. A duty of one shilling per quarter to be 
retained as a registration fee ; this, though thought 
nothing of at the time by either party, has since, 
from the larger importation of 'corn, brought us a 
large revenue (in one year) 500,000Z. As some relief 
to the agriculturists, new arrangements were to be 
made for highways, settlement of paupers, and for 
charging prosecutions (now paid out of the county 
rate) upon the Consolidated Fund. As soon as these 
proposals were made known various resignations took 
place in the Royal Household ; Lords Exeter, Hard- 
wicke, and Granby resigned, and later Lord Delawarr 
and Lord Warwick. Several members for agricul- 
tural counties were also called on by their constituents 
to resign; and Lord Lincoln and Captain Rous, 



]30 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

members of the Government, were respectively 
beaten in South Notts and Westminster. On Feb- 
ruary 16th, Lord Beaumont moved in the House of 
Lords for a select committee upon the burdens on 
real property, which was granted by the Government. 
The committee sate till the middle of May, and col- 
lected a great quantity of valuable evidence, but it 
had no effect on the great question of the session. 
On this occasion Lord Stanley spoke against the Go- 
vernment measure of repealing duties, thus placing 
himself in direct opposition to them, and joining the 
party he was so soon to lead. On the 27th, the House 
of Commons, after a debate which lasted for twelve 
nights, resolved to go into a committee on the Corn 
Laws, by a majority of 97 votes, there being for the 
motion 337 — 240 ; a decisive majority for Govern- 
ment. On March 2nd, a motion by Mr. C. Yilliers, 
for the immediate repeal of the Corn Laws, was 
negatived on the division. On the 9th, a private 
meeting of Peers favourable to protection duties was 
held at the Duke of Richmond's to consider the best 
mode of opposing Sir R. Peel's new commercial sys- 
tem ; about thirty Peers were present, and we ap- 
pointed a committee to confer with our party in the 
House of Commons on the subject. On the 27th, the 
Corn Law Importation Bill of the Government was 
read a second time in the House of Commons by 302 
votes against 214 ; and on May 18th, it was brought 
up to the House of Lords, read a first time, and the 
second reading fixed for the 25th. On that day it 
was moved by Lord Eipon in a feeble speech, replied 
to by the Duke of Richmond, who moved that it be 
read a second time that day six months. Lord 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 131 

Fitzwilliam spoke next, stating his preference for a 
fixed duty, but that he would not risk the loss of 
the measure by proposing one. After some other 
speeches, Lord Stanley rose, and made an admirable 
speech against the Bill ; Lord Brougham followed, 
and closed the first night's debate ; it was continued 
during the 26th and 28th, when it was closed by the 
Duke of Wellington, who merely advised the House 
not to resist a Bill which had been sent to them ap- 
proved by the Sovereign and the House of Commons. 
The House divided at 4 a.m. when the contents were 
211 and the non-contents 164; and so the second 
reading was carried by a majority of 47 votes. 

This vast change in apparent opinion of the House 
of Lords, from that which had been hitherto ex- 
pressed by it, was not caused by a real approval of this 
particular measure. Many of the supporters of Go- 
vernment sacrificed their own opinions to that of 
their leader. Many supporters of a fixed duty, like 
Lord Fitzwilliam, waived their opinions for fear of 
losing this opportunity of gaining something, and 
there were others no doubt of the opinion which 
Lord Dacre, an old Whig, and in his younger days 
' something more than a Whig,' expressed to me in 
riding down to the house a few days before, ' I dis- 
like free trade as much as anyone, but it is inevitable, 
and therefore I shall support the measures, hoping 
afterwards to get the land relieved from many of its 
present burdens.' On June 12th, the Bill was com- 
mitted after a debate which lasted two nights ; on the 
first of which I spoke against the measure, as one 
equally injurious to our agriculture and manufac- 
tures, relying a good deal on the evidence given 

K 2 



132 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

before the select committee of this session, on the 
burdens of real property ; no division took place on 
this stage. In the committee the Duke of Bucking- 
ham moved to strike out all the words in the first 
clause, which limited the reduced sliding scale to a 
period of three years ; this, after a long debate, was 
negatived by 186 to 103. On the following day 
Lord Wicklow moved an amendment that after 
February 1st, 1849, the duty on wheat should be 
fixed at 1iYe shillings a quarter, instead of one 
shilling, as proposed by the Bill. This amendment 
was also negatived by 140 — 107 ; after this no oppo- 
sition was offered to the Corn Importation Bill ; but 
on the Customs Bill, several divisions were taken, but 
the Government had majorities in all cases, the 
closest being upon the timber duties, which they 
carried by only two votes, 54 — 52. I spoke very 
shortly on the diminished ratio of exports and 
shipping employed since the tariff of 1842. The de- 
bate on the silk trade produced good speeches from 
Lord Dalhousie for the reductions, and Lord Stanley 
against them. 

On the 25th the Corn Bill and Customs Bill were 
read a third time without a division, and passed. 
Sir Robert Peel had now carried all his measures of 
commercial reform through Parliament with com- 
plete success ; but the very same day that witnessed 
their completion was also to witness a defeat, which 
shook his Government to pieces. Early in this ses- 
sion a Bill had been brought by Ministers into the 
House of Lords for £ Protection of Life in Ireland.' 
The numerous outrages in that country seemed to 
justify a measure for their suppression, and men's 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 133 

minds being absorbed in the consideration of what 
appeared more nearly to concern them in the other 
measures of Government, this Bill passed without 
any division, except upon one amendment moved by 
Lord Grey ; and was sent to the House of Commons. 
It was there read a first time by a majority of 149, 
the numbers being 274 — 125, but upon June 9th the 
Protectionists in the House of Commons announced 
their intention not to support the second reading, 
upon the ground that they could not give such ex- 
tensive powers to a Government in which they had 
no confidence, From this moment the fate of the 
Bill became very critical, as the Whigs opposed it in a 
body ; and on this same June 25th, the motion for the 
second reading, after an adjourned debate of several 
days, was put and negatived on division by 73 votes, 
the numbers being for the motion 219 — 292. This 
debate and division are very dramatically described 
by D' Israeli in his ' Political Sketch ' of Lord George 
Bentinck. The following day in the House of Lords, 
Lord Eipon postponed a Ministerial Bill ' on account 
of the present state of the Government,' the usual 
formula of announcing a break-up. 

On Sunday the 28th, it was known that Peel had 
gone down to the Queen, who was then staying in 
the Isle of Wight. On Monday in the House of 
Lords, after Lord Aberdeen had, in answer to a ques- 
tion by Lord Ashburton, announced that the United 
States had acceded to our last proposal for settling 
the Oregon question, the Duke of Wellington rose 
and announced, without any remark, that the Minis- 
ters had resigned. In the House of Commons Peel 
made the same announcement in a speech of an hour 



134 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

long, stating his past conduct and future views, and 
winding up with an eulogium upon Richard Cobden, 
the great anti-Corn Law agitator. Thus fell a 
Government which, at the close of the last session of 
Parliament, was perhaps one of the strongest that 
had ever existed ; and must have continued so, but 
for the suicidal policy of its chief, which not only 
caused its immediate fall, but produced a schism, 
between the two portions of the Conservative party, 
which has not been completely healed at the end of 
fifteen years. This was the last greab act of Sir 
Robert Peel's political life. During the next three 
years he took no leading part in public affairs, and 
just as he appeared to have become dissatisfied with 
the policy of his successor, and to be preparing again 
to oppose the Whig Government, his life was sud- 
denly cut short by a fall from his horse, as he was 
riding down Constitution Hill. 

He left for publication a justification of his con- 
duct at the two great turning-points of his political 
career : the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill, and 
the Corn Law repeal. You may read it, and perhaps 
form a more impartial judgment than those who, 
having previously held the same opinions which he 
professed and ably maintained, felt themselves sud- 
denly, and without any explanation, deserted, if not 
betrayed, by a leader who, adopting new views of 
policy, still kept his office in the Government, with 
the intention of using that position for carrying out 
those new principles by the support of his former 
opponents. For my own part, I cannot but believe 
that the fear of agitation out of doors had in both i 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO • 1852. 135 

cases a considerable share in producing his change 
of opinions. 

Lord John Eussell was now again sent for to make 
an Administration, and this time succeeded in com- 
pleting it ont of the materials of the former Govern- 
ments of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne, Lord John 
himself being First Lord of the Treasury; Lord 
Grey (lately succeeded to that title), Lord Palmerston, 
and Sir George Grey, the three Secretaries of State ; 
Lord Lansdowne, President of the Council and leader 
of the House of Lords ; and Lord Cottenham Chan- 
cellor. On July 6th the new Ministers took their 
seats on the Treasury bench, and the Protectionists 
on the front seats of the Opposition. 

On the 9th, at a great dinner of the Protectionist 
members of both Houses, Lord Stanley spoke as 
leader of the party, recommending moderation to- 
wards Peel's supporters, and fair play to the Govern- 
ment, but strenuous resistance to any further a/fctack 
upon the Church. The only measure of consequence 
brought forward by the new Ministers during the 
remainder of this session, was the Bill for abolishing 
the differential duties on slave-grown sugar — a vital 
question to our West Indian colonists. It was also 
strongly opposed by the anti-slavery party ; but the 
second reading was carried in the House of Com- 
mons (July 28th) by 265 — 135 ; and it was not con- 
sidered advisable to divide against it in the House of 
Lords at so late a period of the session, on account 
of the difficulty of obtaining an attendance, but only 
to debate it on the first reading. The Bishops of 
Oxford and London, however, opposed the second 
reading, and it was carried by 28 — 10 ! Lord Powis's 



136 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Bill for rescinding the proposal of the Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners to unite the sees of Bangor and 
St. Asaph was carried through the second reading 
by 38 against 28 votes, and Ministers announced that 
they should not oppose the Bill further in the House 
of Lords. It was ultimately successful. 

My chief occupation in this session was as a 
member of the select committee moved for by Lord 
Beaumont upon the burdens on real property. It 
met first on February 3rd, and continued sitting two 
days a week till May 18th. It collected a mass of 
curious evidence upon the rating of real property of 
all descriptions, as well in foreign countries as at 
home, and made an elaborate report. I sate also on 
several railway Bills. I spoke shortly on Lord Beau- 
mont's motion for papers respecting the affairs of the 
river Plate ; on the thanks for the Indian victories, 
suggesting public monuments to the general officers 
killed in battle, which Lord Ripon said he would con- 
sider, but did nothing ; on going into committee on 
the Corn Bill ; and also shortly on the Customs Bill 
in committee. This year we determined to let Kid- 
brooke again, and in the autumn paid a visit to 
Lord Ellenborough at Southam, and afterwards went 
for six weeks to Brighton. 

In January of this year your uncle, William Law, 
married his present wife Matilda, a sister of Sir 
Henry Montgomery. 

The war in India, which commenced in 1845 by 
the invasion of our territory by the Sikhs, and the 
bloody battle of Eerozeshah, was brought this year 
to a successful close by the victories of Aliwal and 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 137 

Sobraon, after which latter the Sikhs tendered their 
submission. 

In Europe, Austria this year annexed to her 
dominions the independent city of Cracow, on the 
plea of its being a focus of revolutionists. France 
and England protested against this act as a breach, 
of the treaties of Vienna. A formidable insurrection 
broke out in Portugal, in consequence of the dis- 
missal of Count Palmella. The insurgents seized at 
Oporto the Duke of Terceira, who had been sent 
there to take the command by the Government; 
and, under the command of Count Bomnn, advanced 
as far as Santarem ; but having received a check at 
Torres Vedras, they retired to Coimbra. They might, 
however, have been ultimately successful had not 
France, England, and Spain agreed to an armed 
intervention ; and the Junta of Oporto having re- 
fused the terms of accommodation offered through 
Colonel Wylde, an expedition- sailing to attack 
Lisbon, under Count Das Antos, was seized by the 
British squadron off Oporto, and that city itself sur- 
rendered (July, 1847) to a Spanish army commanded 
by General Concha. In France, the general election 
gave to the Ministry of Guizot an increased majority 
in the Chamber of Deputies of about twenty-four 
votes above that which, it possessed in the chamber 
just dissolved ; and the marriage of the Due de 
Montpensier, one of the King's younger sons, to the 
sister of the Queen of Spain (and her presumptive 
heiress), appeared to give to the house of Orleans 
increased stability and power — how soon to be 
entirely overthrown ! The Queen of Spain was this 
year married to her cousin, Don Francisco d'Assis, 



138 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Duke of Cadiz, son of Don Francisco de Paula. 
Cardinal Mastai Ferretti, elected Pope, takes the 
name of Pius the Ninth. The planet ' Neptune' 
was discovered this year, calculated to be as much 
further from the planet Herschel as that planet is 
from the sun. Its existence had been predicted from 
certain disturbances observed in the motion of 
Herschel in its orbit, and the time of its appearance 
and position in the heavens calculated with consider- 
able accuracy, thus giving a wonderful confirmation 
of the Newtonian theory, and of the progress of 
astronomical science. 

The session of 1847 was opened on January 19th 
by the Queen in person, who in her speech from the 
throne recommended, in order to alleviate the famine 
which had now broken out in Ireland in consequence 
of the disease in potatoes, an immediate suspension 
of the corn laws, and a temporary relaxation of the 
navigation laws, as regarded the importation of corn 
in foreign vessels, and the permission to use sugar in 
distilleries. The address in answer was carried with- 
out amendment in either House. 

On the 25th the Suspension Bills passed through 
all their stages in the House of Lords, and Lord 
Lansdowne made a statement of the measures pro- 
posed by Government for Ireland, viz., loans for im- 
provements, amended poor laws, and powers to sell 
land to pay off mortgages. From this last measure 
arose the establishment of the ' Encumbered Estates 
Court,' which enabled creditors, when the mortgages 
exceeded one-half the value of the land, to demand a 
compulsory sale of the whole property, the pur- 
chasers receiving a Parliamentary title, under a 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 139 

decree of the court, which could not be impeached. 
This was found so useful, that landed proprietors 
who were heavily mortgaged, though not to the ex- 
tent of one-half of their property, voluntarily placed 
themselves within the jurisdiction of the court ; and 
thus, in lieu of large landholders so loaded with debt 
that they could barely maintain themselves by screw- 
ing the highest rents out of their tenantry, and 
totally incapable of making any improvements, either 
the old proprietor found himself master of an unen- 
cumbered though diminished estate, or a new and 
more energetic race was introduced ; though, as in 
all general changes, some sad cases of individual 
hardship occurred, when the creditors swept away the 
whole proceeds of the sale. 

On March 2nd Lord Grey opened the Government 
measures for the abolition of transportation of males, 
substituting separate confinement, followed by labour 
on public works and exile. 

The 24th was kept as a general fast on account of 
the Irish famine. The House of Lords attended 
Divine service in Westminster Abbey : according to 
custom, we walked in procession from the House to 
the Abbey, where the peers sat in the stalls, and the 
officers of the House below them. The sermon was 
preached by the junior bishop (Short, of St. Asapb). 
After the service we returned to the House, and 
thanks were voted to the Bishop for his sermon, 
which was ordered to be printed. The peers attend- 
ing did not exceed twenty-seven. After the Easter 
holidays the Lords met in their new chamber, after 
having occupied a temporary one for twelve years. 
In the House of Commons, the clause in the Fac- 



140 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

tory Bill limiting the number of working hours to 
ten after May, 1848, was carried by 144 to 66 votes. 
On February 24th a very singular division took place 
on a Bill for granting further relief to the Eoman 
Catholics : the second reading was carried by 102 to 
99, a majority of only two, though that majority 
included Lord John Eussell, Sir Eobert Peel, and 
Lord George Bentinck, the leaders of the three 
parties in the House. On the motion for going into 
committee, on April 13th, it was negatived by 150 — 
119, and the Bill consequently lost. The Irish Poor 
Belief Bill was read a second time in the House of 
Lords without a division ; but in the committee, an 
amendment to limit it to a period of years was carried 
against the Government by 63 — 50, and on the fol- 
lowing day another to strike out the clause directing 
that any excess of rate above 2s. 6d. in any electoral 
division should be charged on the union generally, 
was carried by 73 — 54. The former amendment 
was, however, rejected on the report by 52 — 42. A 
Bill brought forward this session for introducing 
limited service into the army caused much discussion. 
The Duke of Wellington spoke strongly against any 
measure ' which should deprive the army of its old 
soldiers.' He, however, supported this Bill, and the 
second reading was carried by 108 — 94. 

Two Bills of some importance respecting the Navy 
were passed this session. One for providing naval 
prisons, and the other for amending the articles of 
war, by empowering courts martial to award at their 
discretion a sentence less than death in certain cases, 
when by the existing law they had no alternative ; 
although the article contained offences of various 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 141 

degrees of criminality, and there might be circum- 
stances of great extenuation. That article in par- 
ticular which awarded death to any person who 
6 should strike his superior officer being in the execu- 
tion of his duty,' when applied to a drunken seaman 
striking a boatswain's mate, or a marine of un- 
governable temper giving a blow to his corporal, was 
felt to be contrary to the e spirit of the times,' and 
courts martial, therefore, either endeavoured to find 
some flaw in the proceedings to justify an acquittal, 
or passed a sentence of death, which both they and 
the prisoner felt would never be carried into execu- 
tion by the Admiralty. The proposed alteration also 
placed the sailor and soldier on an equal footing, as 
by the Mutiny Act the like discretion was given to 
the army courts martial. These considerations in- 
duced me, after consulting most of the naval peers 
as well as my personal friends in the profession, to 
give notice that on a second reading of the Naval 
Prisons Bill, I should call the attention of the House 
to the naval Articles of War. 

I also communicated privately to Lord Auckland, 
Pirst Lord of the Admiralty, my exact views, and he 
told me two days afterwards that ' at the Admiralty 
they rather liked my suggested amendments of the 
Articles of War.' I indeed found no objection except 
from the lawyers, who seemed to have some vague 
alarm at touching the question. 

On May 20th, Lord Auckland, in moving the 
second reading of the Naval Prisons Bill, referred to 
my notice, and said he considered it as proper to be 
the subject of a separate Bill, and that if I would 
bring in such a Bill he would give it his support ; or 



142 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

lie would bring in a Bill himself. I replied that I 
should prefer the latter course, as I conceived so im- 
portant a change should appear to be made by the 
Government, rather than by an individual member 
of Parliament. Lord Auckland accordingly brought 
in a Bill which substantially met my views, and 
which received the Eoyal assent on July 2nd. I was 
prevented taking any part in the passing of this 
Bill through the House of Lords, owing to the death 
of my mother, which took place on June 10th, but 
you will find among my papers the note which I 
wrote to Lord Auckland on May 20th, to prevent 
any misunderstanding as to what I proposed, and his 
answer. 

On May 11th Lord Hardwicke asked a question in 
the House of Lords as to the supply of corn to the 
country. Lord Lansdowne declined giving any opinion 
for fear of causing a panic out of doors, but all 
recommended the strictest economy in the use of 
bread ; and the next day the Queen issued an order 
restricting the quality of bread to be used in her 
household, and the quantity for each person. On 
June 15th Lord Stanley moved a resolution, that our 
interference in the affairs of Portugal was not justi- 
fied by the papers produced, but it was negatived by 
66 — 47. In the House of Commons a similar motion 
(by Hume) was lost on the third night of debate, by 
the House being counted out ! On July 15th a con- 
ference was held between the two Houses on the 
mode of receiving Bills and messages, when the 
Commons agreed to the resolutions of the House of 
Lords. On the 23rd Parliament was prorogued, and 
the same day dissolved by proclamation. Besides 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 243 

my share in the Bill for amending the naval Articles 
of War alluded to already, I was placed this session 
npon the Select Committee for enquiring into the 
Poor Eemoval Act of 1846, that npon Holyhead 
Harbour Bill, and the Great Western Eailway Ex- 
tension Bill. I also spoke upon the second reading 
of the Irish Poor Law Bill, supporting it upon the 
broad principle that it is the duty of every civilised 
and Christian state to provide that none of its 
citizens shall perish through destitution for want of 
a legal provision of relief, but that the mode of pro-, 
viding that relief must be at the option of the State, 
according to the particular case of each county. 
On the question for going into Committee on the 
Poor Law Amendment Bill, I spoke against the 
proposed Commission, suggesting, as a preferable 
plan, that all the leading provisions of the present 
system should be embodied in an Act of Parliament, 
and that the duty of the Commissioners should be 
simply to see that the Act was enforced, but not to 
originate any new rules. 

On July 8th, I spoke shortly on Lord Hardwicke's 
motion respecting the grant of naval medals, when 
Lord Auckland promised to revise the order of 
June 1st. 

In the month of January of this year we moved 
into 76, South Audley Street, which we had hired 
on a running lease of 7, 14, and 21 years, but 
before the end of the first term we were glad to 
remove to a more quiet situation, and one nearer to 
the park. On June 10th I had the misfortune to 
lose my most excellent mother, who expired early in 
the morning of that day without any apparent pain, 



144 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

but of a completely exhausted constitution, having 
nearly completed her eighty-seventh year. For the 
two last years she had been unable to see sufficiently 
to read or write, and had latterly become very deaf. 
She had never mixed in general society after my 
father's death, and for several years had not gone 
out of her house in Upper Berkeley Street ; but she 
remained to the last, as ever, kind, gentle, and un- 
repining, firm in her trust in her Redeemer, and 
never sparing herself when she could contribute in 
any way to the advancement or assistance of those 
that needed it. 

We had intended to go to Kidbrooke as soon as 
the business of Parliament permitted, but several 
cases of small-pox having occurred at Ashurstwood, 
we accepted Lord Ellenborough's invitation to 
Southam, where we went on July 29th, and re- 
mained till August 16th. 

On the 21st we went to Kidbrooke, and remained 
there till November 18th, receiving visits from the 
Colvilles, Henry Laws, and George Towry. 

While there we had an offer from Mr. Fullerton 
to hire the place for three years, from the end of the 
year, which we accepted. 

I this year purchased the cottage (Tine's) and 
fields at Forest Eow, late Wood's, for 325?. 

On November 8th, I received a letter from Henry 
Eden (private secretary of the First Lord of the 
Admiralty), saying that Lord Auckland wished to 
know privately my wishes as to employment. It 
became therefore necessary for me to decide whether 
I would at once accept the command of a ship for 
three years, or by declining it, virtually give up my 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 145 

active career in the navy, as if I refused this oppor- 
tunity there would be no chance of my being able to 
complete the six years' command required to place 
me on the active list of nag officers, when my turn 
should arrive. Considering the whole circumstances 
of the case, and that the present state of the world 
appeared so peaceable that there was no call upon 
me to quit my present mode of life, I replied that I 
was always ready to serve whenever called upon by 
the Admiralty, but that at present, if it was put to 
me as a matter of convenience, I should rather 
prefer remaining unemployed ; and so, as I foresaw, 
here ended my hopes of active employment, as in 
April, 1854, I was placed on the reserved list of flag 
officers. I afterwards learnt that the ship to the 
command of which it had been intended to appoint 
me, was the ' Caledonia/ a first-rate of 120 guns. 
You will find Eden's note and the draft of my reply 
among my papers. 

I presented this year to the library of the House of 
Lords my father's collection of House of Commons' 
reports, &c, during the time he held the office of 
Speaker, consisting of more than one hundred vo- 
lumes. 

Colonel Dyneley was this summer appointed to 
command the artillery in Canada, and sailed in Sep- 
tember, accompanied by your aunt and their daughter 
(Amy) . Edward Dyneley sailed in July for the Cape 
of Good Hope, and Henry obtained a cavalry cadet- 
ship in the Madras Presidency. Frederick Ramsden 
received a commission in the Rifle Brigade, and pro- 
ceeded to join them in Canada, and by the same 
steamer as the Dyneleys. 

L 



146 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

In February of this year the King of Prussia gave 
his subjects a representative Government. 

In May, Lord Clarendon was gazetted Lord Lieu- 
tenant of Ireland. In August, Lord Dalhousie was 
nominated Governor- General of India. In September 
a list appeared of the mercantile houses (chiefly in 
the corn trade) which had failed since the summer, 
having altogether liabilities to more than 9,600,000/. ! 
The excessive demand for money in the money market, 
and the apprehension that the Bank of England might 
not be able to meet it under the provision of the Act 
of 1841, induced Lord John Eussell and the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, on October 26th, to authorise 
the Bank of England to grant discounts on bills at 
eight per cent. 

The new Parliament met on November 18th, and 
I took my seat on the following day. The address in 
answer to the Queen's speech was moved on the 23rd. 
Lord Stanley made a splendid speech, commenting 
on the distressed state of the country, as stated in the 
Queen's speech, after all the promises of prosperity 
to follow free-trade measures, and offering his sup- 
port to measures for tranquillising Ireland. 

On December 3rd, a select committee was appointed 
to enquire into causes of commercial distress. 

In the House of Commons, Lord John Eussell 
moved to bring in a Bill for removing Jewish disabili- 
ties, which, after two nights' debate, was (on the 1 7th) 
carried by 253 votes against 186. 

The Bishopric cf Australia was this year divided 
into four sees — Sydney (Metropolitan), Newcastle, 
Adelaide, and Melbourne. A bishopric was also es- 
tablished at the Cape of Good Hope. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 147 

The year 1848 is memorable for tlie deeds of anar- 
chy and bloodshed which troubled almost every State 
of Europe except England, which was preserved from 
them by a merciful Providence. In January the 
French completed their subjugation of Algeria by the 
surrender of Abdel-Kader, who, finding himself hardly 
pressed by the troops of Morocco, surrendered to the 
Due d'Aumale upon promise of permission to retire 
into Egypt or Syria; but the French Government 
refused to ratify the Due's promise, and Abdel-Kader 
was detained a prisoner at the Castle of Amboise till 
he had seen the dynasty of Orleans expelled by a re- 
public, and that in its turn crushed by an emperor, 
when Louis Napoleon at length permitted him to 
retire to Damascus. 1 In the same month an insur- 
rection broke out in Sicily, and 5,000 troops sent 
from Naples to suppress it did not venture to attack 
Palermo ; the concessions offered by the King were 
rejected by the insurgents, who demanded for Sicily 
the constitution of 1812. In February the Kings of 
Naples and Sardinia granted to their subjects repre- 
sentative constitutions on the basis of the French 
Constitution of 1830. 

But that constitution was tottering to its fall ; 
stirring discussions were taking place in the French 
Chamber of Deputies, at the conclusion of which the 
Minister, Guizot, was obliged to admit the necessity 
of electoral reform. A reform banquet to have been 
held on the 22nd was interdicted by the Govern- 
ment. 



1 He was released in November. Louis Napoleon declared emperor 
December 1852. 

L 2 



148 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

The Opposition deputies threatened to impeach the 
ministers for preventing public meetings. 

Large mobs paraded the streets of Paris, singing 
the Marseillaise. On the 23rd barricades were raised 
and the Ministers resigned. On the 24th Louis 
Philippe abdicated in favour of his grandson, the 
Count of Paris, but the revolutionists would be satis- 
fied with nothing less than a republic. 

The Chamber of Peers was prohibited from meeting, 
and all titles were abolished. 

The members of the royal family were obliged to 
fly in disguise, and the ex- King himself, after being 
missing for some days, landed at Newhaven under 
the name of Mr. Smith. Lamartine, who was placed 
at the head of the provisional Government, obtained 
a decree of the Assembly that capital punishments 
for political purposes should be abolished; and he 
declared that .France would adhere to existing treaties 
with foreign powers. 

These two measures in some degree quieted the 
alarm generally felt that there was going to be a 
repetition of the Eevolution of 1793. 

The Constituent Assembly met on May 4th, and the 
Provisional Government resigned its power into their 
hands. 

An executive committee of five persons was chosen, 
with Lamartine at their head. This, however, did 
not satisfy the mob, who on the 16th broke into the 
Chamber and declared it dissolved, but the National 
Guard coming to the rescue, the leaders of the mob 
were arrested. 

On June 24th fresh emeutes broke out in Paris, and 
t>arncaAies were raised. On the 25th Paris was de- 



149 

clared in a state of siege, and the whole executive 
power vested in General Cavaignac. 

The fighting continued for three days, at the end 
of which the insurrection was put down, after great 
slaughter on both sides. The Archbishop of Paris, 
while trying to restore peace, was mortally wounded 
by a red Eepublican. While these scenes were enact- 
ing in France, similar events were taking place in 
Austria, Prussia, Germany, and Italy, where the 
people, stimulated by the example of the French, 
were everywhere rising against their rulers. An 
emeute took place in March at Yienna, in conse- 
quence of which Prince Metternich, who had been 
Prime Minister since 1814, and was considered the 
greatest continental statesman of the time, resigned ; 
and the Emperor made some concessions to the 
people. In May the Emperor suddenly quitted Vienna 
for Inspruck. In June an attempt to put down the 
Academical Guard failed. Fresh disturbances broke 
out in September. The Ban of Croatia (Jellalich) 
crossed the Drave, proclaiming the absolute Emperor. 
In October, Count Limburg, who was sent by the 
Emperors to succeed the Archduke Stephen in the 
government of Hungary, was murdered by the mob. 
The Ban of Croatia, appointed to succeed Count 
Limburg, advanced to Eaab, but was afterwards de- 
feated. On October 6th, an insurrection broke out 
in Yienna, in which General Latour, the Minister of 
War, was murdered, his body treated with great in- 
dignity, and the arsenal stormed. Prince Windisch- 
gratz, in consequence, commenced a bombardment of 
the city on October 25th, and it surrendered on the 
30th. In December the Emperor abdicated in favour 



150 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

of his nephew Francis Joseph, a young man eighteen 
years old. 

The affairs of Austria in Italy had gone on scarcely 
better during the earlier part of the year, though 
the firmness and skill of the aged Marshal Radetzky 
ultimately brought them to a triumphant conclusion. 

In March an insurrection broke out at Milan, from 
which city the Viceroy fled, and the insurgents being 
supported by a Piedmontese army, the Governor re- 
tired first into the citadel, and then, as soon as he 
had collected his outlying detachments, evacuated the 
place. A simultaneous movement took place in the 
Venetian territory, and the City of Venice fell into 
the hands of the insurgents. The Duke of Parma 
was about the same time forced to abdicate, and the 
Pope shortly afterwards was obliged to join the 
movement (for a new kingdom of Italy), and to de- 
clare war against Austria. Under these circumstances 
Radetzky concentrated the Austrian forces in Lom- 
bardy, behind the Mincio ; but the Piedmontese army 
forced the passage of that river at Goito on April 
13th, and laid siege to Peschiera; on May 8th, they 
attacked the Austrians in position in front of Verona, 
but were repulsed. In June, Peschiera surrendered, 
the Austrians having failed in an attempt to relieve it. 

Radetzky being joined by General Nugent, who 
had fought his way from the neighbourhood of 
Trieste, and his communications with the Tyrol being 
now secured, marched in force from Verona against 
Vicenza, which capitulated ; the garrison of 12,000 
Pontifical troops engaging not to serve for three 
months. He next attacked the Piedmontese army 
at Custozza, and gained a complete victory; King 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 151 

Charles Albert retiring behind the Mincio, and then 
under the walls of Milan ; which city capitulated to 
the Austrians on August 6th. In the following 
month Austria accepted the mediation of France and 
England in the affairs of Italy. At Berlin sharp 
fighting took place in March between the troops and 
the people ; but a proclamation of the King, throw- 
ing himself upon his people, restored good order. In 
Bavaria the King abdicated in favour of his eldest 
son, Maximilian. In Wurtemburg many castles of 
the nobles were burnt by mobs. 

At Frankfort an assembly, popularly elected, met 
to represent the confederated states of Germany, and 
elected the Archduke John, of Austria, vicegerent of 
the empire. They ordered the troops of the Con- 
federation to march into Schleswig, to support the 
claims of the people of Schleswig-Holstein, who re- 
fused to be annexed to Denmark. 

The Danes were at first driven from their fortified 
positions, and the towns of Schleswig and Flens- 
burg captured ; but in a subsequent battle they forced 
the army of the confederation to retire, and in July 
an armistice for three months was agreed on. In 
September attempts were made by the populace to 
overawe the assembly, barricades were raised, and 
the first attacks of the troops repulsed. Two mem- 
bers of the assembly were murdered by the mob with 
circumstances of great barbarity ; but ultimately the 
barricades in the city were removed and tranquillity 
restored. 

At home, on February 7th, Lord Lansdowne pre- 
sented to the House of Lords a Bill to legalise diplo- 
matic intercourse with the Pope. No opposition was 



152 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

made to the second reading, but many amendments 
were made in committee, particularly one, moved by 
Lord Eglinton, to exclude ecclesiastics from being 
received as ambassadors, which was carried by 67 — 
64. This so annoyed the Court of Rome that no 
ambassador has ever been sent. On the 11th a Bill 
was read a second time in the House of Commons 
for the relief of Jewish disabilities by 207 — 204 ; but 
on its coming up to the Lords it was thrown out on 
the second reading (May 28th) by 163—128. 

On February 19th Lord John Russell made his 
financial statement, according to which he proposed 
to continue the income-tax for live years, and in- 
creased during the two first to five per cent. ; bat so 
stormy an opposition was expressed to such a scheme, 
that on the 29th the Government abandoned it, and 
only asked to have the existing tax continued for 
three years. On the same day Lord John Russell 
announced that this country would not interfere in 
the internal affairs of France. Previously to this, 
on the 25th, Lord Hardwicke moved for a select com- 
mittee on the navigation laws. Lord Grey, in con- 
senting to the motion, announced that Government 
would bring in a Bill upon the subject, without wait- 
ing for the report of the committee. Accordingly 
Mr. Labouchere, on May 13th, opened, in the House 
of Commons, the Government scheme for amending 
the navigation laws ; but on July 1 7th Lord John 
Russell announced the Bill would not be proceeded 
with further this session. Our select committee met 
on March 2nd, and continued its sittings two days in 
the week till August 4th, when the evidence was 
closed ; and on that day it reported the evidence to 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 153 

the House, and asked to be re-appointed next session 
for the purpose of reporting their opinion. 

The overthrow of the French monarchy stirred up 
the democratic feeling in England as well as else- 
where, though with us the result was only to show 
how large a portion of the body politic still remained 
sound. On March 6th a meeting was held in Tra- 
falgar Square, ostensibly to petition against the 
income-tax. The mob afterwards broke lamps and 
windows in the neighbourhood, and fears were enter- 
tained of worse consequences the next day. In the 
afternoon there were crowds of people about Charing 
Cross, and the shops were shut ; but there were no 
cries, nor any interruption of carriages. A riot 
which broke out in Glasgow was speedily quelled 
by the pensioners, who being called out fired upon 
the mob. Eiots also broke out at Edinburgh and 
in Manchester, but were suppressed by the local 
authorities. 

On the 13th a great meeting was to be held on 
Kennington Common. A large force of police was 
held in readiness ; many gentlemen were sworn in as 
special constables ; and two regiments had been 
brought up from the south coast. The meeting, 
however, passed over quietly ; not above 3,000 people 
were present, partially owing, perhaps, to the day 
being wet. 

Later in the month seditious meetings were held 
in Dublin. Mr. Smith O'Brien (an M.P. and brother 
of Sir Lucius O'Brien), Meagher, Mitchel, and others 
were held to bail for their language at those meet- 
ings ; but this did not prevent the two former from 
proceeding to Paris with an address to the Pro- 



154 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

visional Government ; but Lamartine in his answer 
would give them no promise of assistance. 

The great turning-point of our social stability was 
to be April 10th, for which day -the Chartists of Lon- 
don had announced a display of their forces to carry 
their petition to the door of the House of Commons. 

The procession was to start from some place on the 
north side of London (I think Copenhagen Fields), 
march through the City, over London Bridge, to 
Ivennington Common, and thence over Westminster 
Bridge to Palace Yard. Several hundred thousands 
were talked of as to attend, and the choice of the 
circuitous route was evidently made to display their 
numbers and overawe the timid. Serious apprehen- 
sions were entertained of the consequences which 
might ensue from such an assemblage in the present 
excited state of the lower orders, encouraged by the 
recent events at Paris ; and great preparations were 
made by Government to meet any contingency which 
might arise. The Bank, the India House, and the 
public offices were put in a state of defence ; artillery 
was brought up from Woolwich, and all the dis- 
posable troops from every quarter. Individuals were 
encouraged to enrol themselves as special constables, 
and so well was this call responded to that persons 
of every rank, from the Duke to the smallest house- 
holder, came forward. When I went to the magis- 
trate's office in Marlborough Street, on the morning 
of the 6th, to be sworn in, it was so full of persons 
come on a similar errand that I had to wait a con- 
siderable time, and there was difficulty found in 
supplying the required number of truncheons. On 
the same clay (the 6th) the Government gave notice 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 155 

of a Bill 'for better security of the Crown and 
Government/ which passed speedily through all its 
stages ; and, in reply to a question put to them, 
stated that the proposed Chartist meeting would be 
declared illegal. On the 8th a muster of the special 
constables of the Mayfair district of St. George's 
parish was held in the burying-ground behind the 
workhouse in Mount Street. Admiral Bowles com- 
manded the constables of this district, Lord Dela- 
warr the Hanover Square district, and Lord Strafford 
the whole parish ; the force said to amount to 1,200 
men. We were divided into companies and sections, 
my post being in company 8, section 2, commanded 
by Captain Stanley. Similar arrangements were 
made in other parishes. 

The duty allotted to the special constables was to 
relieve the regular police from their ordinary duties 
of patrolling the streets, that the whole of that force 
might be employed against the Chartists ; the plan 
being, to permit them to proceed to the south side of 
the river, and oppose by force any attempt to recross 
the bridges. 

The procession started at nine a.m. on the 10th. 
At 1.30 p.m. the whole of the special constables of 
St. George's paraded in the Mount Street burying- 
ground, and remained till three o'clock,, when we 
heard that the Chartists had given up their intention 
of accompanying their petition to the door of the 
House of Commons, and had submitted to its being 
carried there by Feargus O'Connor, who was to pre- 
sent it, and five or six others. 

This abandonment of their object was caused by 
an intimation that was made to Feargus O'Connor 



156 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

after he, with the petition, had passed London Bridge, 
that if he persisted he would immediately be ar- 
rested, and that an overwhelming force was prepared 
to resist any attempt to force a passage over West- 
minster Bridge. 

We were therefore dismissed from our parade ; but 
the Mayfair division was kept on duty from five till 
ten p.m., when the regular police resumed their usual 
stations. Our district was perfectly quiet : the only 
adventure which occurred being the taking up of two 
men by one of the patrols of the Hanover district, 
who, when they brought their prisoners to the station, 
discovered they were special constables of the parish 
of St. James. 

Thus happily passed over without bloodshed this 
crisis, which had been looked forward to with anxiety, 
not only in England but on the Continent, as many 
expected it would prove a repetition of the scenes 
which had occurred six weeks before in Paris. But 
the general feeling in favour of order and of the 
constituted authorities displayed in the readiness 
of every class to come forward in its defence con- 
vinced the discontented that they were in a hopeless 
minority ; and after this day no further alarm was 
felt of anarchy and revolution, though symptoms still 
appeared of partial disturbances. 

On May 31st the Life Guards were sent into the 
City, and a portion of the special constables called 
out, in preparation against a Chartist meeting ex- 
pected to be held ; and on June 12th a meeting took 
place, but the leaders, finding that the Government 
was resolved, and fully prepared, to prevent their 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 157 

proceeding, retired, and a thunderstorm dispersed 
the remainder of the assembly. 

Towards the end of the summer the seditious spirit 
in Ireland broke out in acts of open rebellion ; but 
they were so easily quelled as to appear almost ridi- 
culous. Smith O'Brien was, however, for his share 
in them, arrested, tried for high treason, found guilty, 
and on October 11th sentence of death was passed on 
him. This was subsequently commuted for transpor- 
tation for life. 

Parliament continued to sit till September 3rd, but 
we left London on August 9th, and went to Ryde, in 
the Isle of Wight, where we remained till September 
19th. One of our inducements to go there was to 
enjoy the society of the Colvilles, who had a villa on 
the outskirts of the town ; but Lord Colville began to 
suffer so much from oppression on his chest, that 
they returned to London before the end of August, 
and though he lingered till the close of the following 
year (1849), he never again quitted London. 

During the earlier part of our stay at Eyde, I was 
busily employed making an analysis of the evidence 
taken before the Committee on the navigation laws, 
to be printed for the use of the members of the Com- 
mittee. You will find it bound up with my copy of 
the report of that Committee. 

Lord Hardwicke afterwards expressed to me his 
own as well as Lord Stanley's satisfaction with it. 
On August 26th, we went by Her Majesty's command 
to a fete, which she gave at Osborne in honour of 
Prince Albert's birthday. A large tent was pitched 
on the lawn for dancing, and another (Tippoo Saib's) 
for refreshments. About one hundred persons were 



158 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

present. Her Majesty threw off her royal etiquette, 
shook hands with several of the ladies, and danced 
waltzes, quadrilles, and a long country dance. All 
the royal children also danced. The two little princes 
wore duck frocks and trousers, and tarpaulin hats, 
like little sailors. 

From Eyde we went to Brighton, where we stayed 
till November 22nd, and then returned to London for 
the winter. While at Brighton I went for three days 
on a visit to Wimpole. In May of this year, the 
Recorder's third daughter, Frederica, was married to 
her cousin Edmund, eldest son of William John Law 
(then) of Horsted. At the close of this year the dis- 
covery of gold in California was confirmed by official 
reports to the Government of the United States, and 
speedily led to the colonisation of that unknown re- 
gion. In September the French Assembly voted, by 
530 against 298, that there should be only one Cham- 
ber under the new Constitution ; Thiers and Odiilon 
Barrot both spoke and voted in the minority. In 
October the Assembly decided by a large majority 
that the President of the Republic should be elected 
by universal suffrage, and by an absolute majority 
of votes — to continue in office four years. On 
December 20th, Louis Napoleon (son of Louis Bona- 
parte, ex-King of Holland, and Hortense Beauhar- 
nais) was declared President of the Republic, having 
received 5,437,762 votes. His competitor, General 
Cavaignac, received only 1,443,107 votes. Odiilon 
Barrot to be at the head of the new Ministry. In 
November, Count Rossi, the Pope's Prime Minister, 
was assassinated as he was entering the Hall of 
National Assembly. The Pope himself besieged in 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 159 

his palace, and obliged to accept a Ministry dictated 
to him by the populace. In the following month he 
escaped from Roine in disguise, and took shelter in 
Gaeta. The authorities at Eome, in consequence, 
declared the temporal power of the Pope at an end, 
and that they would only receive him again as their 
bishop. This raised the indignation of the Roman 
Catholic powers, and the Ruler of France, as ' eldest 
son of the Church,' sent an army under General Oucli- 
not to restore his power. The French were repulsed on 
their first attack upon the Porta Cavalleggieri, and 
the advanced force of the Neapolitans was defeated 
by Garibaldi. The French troops, however, stormed 
the Villa Pamphili and other outposts commanding 
the approaches to Rome, and commenced siege ope- 
rations in form. On June.22ud, they carried by storm 
two bastions near the Porta San Pancrazio, and sub- 
sequently a third, upon which the city surrendered on 
July 30th, and the restoration of the Pope's authority 
was proclaimed by the French, Mazzini and Gari- 
baldi, the leaders of the revolutionary party, contrived 
to escape. Previously to this the National Constituent 
Assembly in France had expired, and the newly- 
elected Assembly (of 750 members) met on May 28th. 
In June, socialist insurrections took place in Paris 
and Lyons, but they were suppressed with the loss of 
only a few lives. In Northern Italy the Austrian 
arms continued to be successful; the King of Sar- 
dinia, having given notice that he should re-commence 
hostilities, crossed the Ticino on March 20th, at the 
Bridge of Buffalora. The Austrians crossed from the 
opposite bank lower down, and after some sharp 
fighting entered Mortara. The battle of Novara 



]60 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

followed, and the abdication of Charles Albert in 
favour of his son ; and in August peace was ratified 
between the two countries. Ancona surrendered in 
June, and Yenice in August, and thus the previous 
state of affairs was restored. 

In Hungary, the Austrian s at first sustained some 
reverses ; but later, being supported by a Russian 
army, the insurgents were forced to submit, Kossuth 
and some of the leaders taking refuge in Turkey, 
where the Sultan refused to give them up. 

The Assembly at Frankfort decided (in January), 
by 261 votes against 211, against an hereditary Em- 
peror of Germany. 

In March, they voted the Imperial Crown of Ger- 
many to the King of Prussia ; upon which the 
Archduke John of Austria signified his resignation 
of the office of Vicegerent, and in the following 
month the King of Prussia replied that he would 
only accept the crown with the consent of the other 
sovereigns of the German States. Prom this time 
the Assembly dwindled, and in June the remains of 
it adjourned to Stutgard, to be no more heard of. 

The hostilities in Schleswig recommenced in April 
with some loss to the Danes at first, but afterwards 
they made a successful sally out of Frederica, and 
defeated the besiegers with the loss of 3,000 men 
and their battering train. Preliminaries of peace 
were subsequently signed at Berlin between Denmark 
and Germany. In Sicily the insurgent government 
refused the terms offered by the King of Naples, 
though the British and French Ministers went in 
person to Palermo to guarantee them ; and thus, re- 
ceiving no foreign assistance, they lost Catania, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852 161 

which was taken by storm, Syracuse by surrender, 
and in May Palermo itself was forced to submit. 

Although we had been enabled to keep aloof from 
the wars which had thus distracted Europe, we were 
at this time involved in the East in one which at one 
moment caused great alarm, although, like most of 
its predecessors, it terminated in the subjugation of 
our Indian adversary. 

In June 1848, accounts arrived that a body of 
troops at Lahore, who had been employed by Mr. 
Vans Agnew in collecting the revenue, had been 
attacked by the people of Moultan, and defeated, and 
that the Moolraj (chief of the territory) had sup- 
ported them. He was, however, obliged by Lieu- 
tenant Edwards, at the head of some native levies, 
to retire within the city of Moultan, which was sub- 
sequently besieged by a force under General Whisk ; 
but the General was obliged to retire from before the 
place in consequence of the defection of Shere Sing, 
who, with 5,000 men, went over to the Moolraj. Va- 
rious other insurrections broke out in the Punjaub, 
and affairs appeared so serious that the Governor- 
General, Lord Dalhousie, set out for the frontier. 

An attack was made upon General Whisk's camp, 
was repulsed, and the enemy's guns taken ; but 
this was counterbalanced by the revolt of the Sikh 
troops at Peshawur. Lord Gough, the commander 
of the forces, now assumed the command of the 
army collected in the Punjaub, and advanced to the 
River Ohenab, near Vizierabad. A severe cavalry 
skirmish took place at Rhamnuggar, in which Briga- 
dier Cureton was killed; but General Thackwell 
having crossed the Chenab at Vizierabad, and de- 
ar 



162 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

feated the troops sent against him, the left flank of 
the Sikhs was turned, and the army of Shere Sing 
retired towards the Jelnm. 

The mail of February 1 (1849) brought accounts 
of the capture of the city of Moultan by storm on 
January 2nd, and the following mail of the surrender 
of the citadel ; but this also brought intelligence 
that Attock had surrendered to the Affghans, and 
that a bloody battle had been fought on January 18th 
at Chillianwallah, on the banks of the Jelum, by the 
army of Lord Gough, in which our loss in killed and 
wounded amounted to near 3,000 men, and whether 
the result was a success, or a decided repulse of our 
forces, appeared very doubtful. 

People in London looked very grave, and the uni- 
versal feeling was that a general of more ability was 
required to carry us through our difficulties. General 
opinion pointed to Sir Charles ISFapier, who had per- 
formed such prodigies in the war in Scinde ; and, 
being strongly pressed by the Duke of Wellington, he 
accepted the appointment, and started by the next 
mail for Calcutta. On March 21st we learnt that 
Lord Gough was intrenching his position at Chil- 
lianwallah, awaiting the troops who were advancing 
to join him from Moultan and other reinforcements 
from Lahore. The next mail brought us more cheer- 
ing news, Lord Gough having been joined by his re- 
inforcements, attacked the main army of the Sikhs 
at Guzerat, on February 21st, and defeated it. Still 
we were without details, but when they arrived they 
fulfilled our best expectations ; the victory was com- 
plete, the Sikhs were driven across the Jelum, and 
were pursued by General Gilbert as far as Botes. In 

1 The mails at that time wore fortnightly. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 18£3 TO 1852. 163 

May we learnt the surrender of Shere Sing, with. 
16,000 men, to General Gilbert, and that he had sub- 
sequently retaken Attock. He afterwards occupied 
Peshawur, the Affghans retiring within the Khyber 
Pass. Then the Governor- General issued his procla- 
mation declaring the Punjaub annexed to the British 
possessions. 

I must now revert to the proceedings cf our own 
Parliament during the session of 1849, famous for 
the amendment, or rather the repeal, of those navi- 
gation laws which for nearly two hundred years had 
been considered to be the main support of our naval 
greatness ; but being now looked upon as standing 
in the way of 'Free trade,' were doomed to be 
abolished. 

The system which had been established by an Act 
of the Long Parliament of 1651, confirmed by the 
12th of Charles II., and rendered more stringent by 
subsequent Acts of that and the following reign, was 
based upon the principle that foreign ships might 
only import into England the produce of their own 
country, and that all indirect trade, as well as the 
direct trade with our colonies, must be carried on in 
ships owned by British subjects, built within the 
British dominions, and manned in a large proportion 
by British seamen ; and, further, to keep up the 
supply of such seamen, every British ship was 
obliged to carry a certain number of apprentices. 

Between the years 1822 and 1830, some relaxations 
were introduced: foreign produce being admitted 
direct from the country of its growth in any vessels, 
and the direct trade with the colonies was opened to 
countries giving us a like reciprocity. But the 

M 2 



164 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

coasting trade and the indirect foreign trade were still 
reserved strictly to British vessels. 

The session opened on February 1st; and a few 
days afterwards Mr. Labouchere, the President of the 
Board of Trade, moved in the House of Commons 
resolutions respecting the Navigation Laws, throwing 
open the trade completely. On March 12th his Bill 
was read a second time by a majority of 56 votes ; 
260 being in its favour, and 210 against it. On the 
23rd Government withdrew the clauses opening the 
coasting trade to foreigners. Admiral Sir Deans 
Dundas, then Senior Naval Lord at the Admiralty, 
told me afterwards that he had told the Government 
that, if the coasting trade was thrown open and the 
manning clauses repealed, he should resign his seat 
at the Board. Lord Auckland had died suddenly at 
the close of the last year, and was replaced at the 
Admiralty by Sir F. Baring. The Bill was read a 
third time in the Commons, on April 1 3th, by a ma- 
jority of 61 ; the votes being, 275 against 214. The 
fate of the Bill now rested with the Lords, and the 
public excitement was very great, as the result ap- 
peared doubtful. Had the question been discussed 
upon its intrinsic merits, there could be little doubt 
that a majority would be against risking the conse- 
quences of so momentous a change ; but as Govern- 
ment was likely to resign if outvoted, there were 
several who thought such an event the more calami- 
tous of the two. On the 27th I overtook the Duke 
of Wellington riding down to the House, and ven- 
turing to say that I hoped we (the opponents) should 
have the great advantage of his vote, he replied, with 
strong symptoms of disgust, that it was too bad 
their giving way to Bright and such fellows, but that 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 165 

he could not tell which way he should vote till he 
had seen the Bill. 

The next day I called on Lord Stanley and offered, 
in the absence of Hardwicke, who was now absent 
from England in command of the ' Vengeance,' to 
move the amendment on the second reading of the 
Bill. To this he assented ; and on May 4th a meet- 
ing of Peers of the party was held at his house to 
arrange the proceedings, and he announced that I 
would move the amendment that it should be read 
this day six months. 

The next day Lord Eglinton called on me, with a 
note from Lord Stanley, to say that Lord Brougham 
had been with him insisting on speaking immediately 
after Lord Lansdowne, but that he (Stanley) would 
not agree without my consent. As Lord Brougham 
was always a powerful advocate of any cause which 
he took up, was a consistent Free-trader, and also a 
dangerous person to offend politically, I at once 
agreed to take any part which the leader of our party 
judged most conducive to our success ; and it was 
settled accordingly to yield to Brougham's wishes. 

The second reading was moved on the 7th by Lord 
Lansdowne in a speech of no remarkable force. 
Brougham followed, showing that those laws were 
not passed as hostile to free trade, but as measures 
for the defence of the country. Lord Granville spoke 
next, chiefly on the practical details of the law, to 
show their inconvenience. I replied to Lord Gran- 
ville, and as Lord Brougham had not moved any 
amendment, I moved ' that the Bill be read this day 
six months.' The Duke of Argyle came next, in 
support of the Bill ; and your uncle Ellenborough, 
against it, closed the first night's debate. It was 



166 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

resumed the next night by Lord Carlisle in favour, 
and on the same side spoke Lords Bruce, Wharn- 
cliffe, Waldegrave, and Grey ; against it, Lords Nel- 
son, Harrowby, Talbot, and Stanley. Lord Lansdowne 
then replied, and at half -past four in the morning of 
the 9th we divided ; there being present for the second 
reading 105, against 119 ; but the proxies reversed 
this majority, being 68 for it and 44 against, leaving 
upon the whole a majority of 10 for the Bill. So 
close a division left the opponents in good spirits, 
particularly as proxies could not be given in com- 
mittee, and we might therefore hope at least to 
modify the more objectionable portions of the Bill. 
On the loth* I went by appointment to Lord Stan- 
ley's, where I met Lord Redesdale and Mr. Herries, 
and we remained from eleven o'clock till near four 
p.m. going through the Acts to be repealed by the 
Navigation Bill, and considering amendments. 

On the 14th there was another small meeting at 
Lord Stanley's to consider farther amendments, at 
which were present Lords Lynclhurst and Brougham, 
and Mr. Spencer Walpole and a few others, besides 
those at a former meeting ; and on the 17th a general 
meeting of the party was held, to announce the pro- 
posed mode of proceeding in committee. This stage 
of the Bill came on upon the 21st, when Lord 
Stanley's motion for an amended plan was nega- 
tived by 116 votes to 103. The House sat again in 
committee on the 24th, when Lord Ellenborough's 
amendment to defer time of Act coming into force 
till January 1851, was negatived by 57 to 44; and 
Lord Waldegrave's, to continue the restriction of a 
British register to British-built ships, by 49 to 37. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 167 

Lord Stanley then announced further opposition to 
be unavailing, and the remaining clauses passed 
without any division. A proposal of Lord "Wharn- 
cliffe to substitute reciprocity for retaliatory clauses, 
was likewise negatived without a division. 

On June 1 2th, the Bill was read the third time and 
passed. I had taken much pains in preparing my 
speech for the second reading, having consulted 
works on the subject in the British Museum, as well 
as those more easily accessible, and I felt master of 
the subject; but not speaking till near nine o'clock, 
when the House was already weary from hearing 
those long speeches, and there was a constant hub- 
bub from the numerous persons below the bar, I felt 
it a disheartening task; and Lords Brougham and 
Gage and others told me the next day that my speech 
was very good as to matter, but wanted power in 
delivery. 

In short, I looked on it as a failure. But on Lord 
Stanley's amendment on the 21st, and Lord Walde- 
grave's on the 24th, I again spoke with more vigour 
and effect. 

You will find my speech on the second reading 
bound up with other speeches on the Bill, and also a 
pamphlet which I published under the signature of a 
4 Member of Parliament,' in answer to one written 
under that of a ' Barrister ' by Mr. (now Sir Staf- 
ford) ISTorthcote. I also sent an article to the Globe, 
under the signature ' Nauticus,' on February 8th, in. 
answer to their challenge to those who advocated the 
Navigation Laws as forming a nursery for seamen for 
the Royal Navy, to show grounds for their assertion. 

This year Lord John Russell again brought forward 



168 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

a motion for the admission of Jews into Parliament, 
under the name of a Bill for altering the oaths to be 
taken by members of Parliament. It passed the 
House of Commons, but was thrown out in the Lords 
by 95 to 70. In June, a Bill brought in by Mr. Hume 
for household suffrage and ballot was negatived by 
268 against 82 votes. 

Later in the session, a motion of Mr. Henley to re- 
duce all official salaries by 10 per cent., was negatived 
by 149 against 102 ; but the following day, one by 
Mr. Henry Drummond, ' That adequate means be 
taken to reduce the expenditure of the country,' was 
carried by 71 against 68 votes. In this session we 
had two discussions on the affairs of the Eiver 
Plate, in each of which I took a part. 

The first was on Lord Harrowby's motion for the in- 
structions given to our Minister there in 1846 ; when 
Lord Lansdowne, in refusing the motion, stated that 
the hostilities in the Parana had been disapproved 
of, that Lord Howden's conduct had been approved, 
and that we were now carrying on negotiations dis- 
tinct from the French. The second, in July, was 
brought on by myself, in consequence of a request of 
Lord Howden that I would ask a question respecting 
the progress of these negotiations. 

This enabled Lord Howden to make a general 
statement of the negotiations, and brought on a good 
discussion, Lords Harrowby and Aberdeen strongly 
insisting on the independence of Monte Yideo being 
secured. 

On August 8th, we left London on a tour of visits 
which lasted till the middle of October. We went 
first to your uncle William's near Birmingham, to 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO J8o2. 169 

the Tatton Egertons at Mere Hall, from whence Ave 
saw Manchester; to Liverpool, to the Wilbraham 
Egertons at Tatton Park, and thence to Henry 
Ramsden's at Ledstone, where we stayed a fortnight. 

We were to have gone thence to Lord Beaumont's, 
at Carlton Hall, near Selby, but Lady Beaumont's 
attack of measles prevented our visiting them, and we 
went straight from Ledstone to Clumber, the Duke of 
Newcastle's, and to Thoresby, Lord Manvers'; before 
proceeding north, to Raby, the Duke of Cleveland's, 
and Stanwick, the Duke of Northumberland's. 

This was our last visit ; from Stanwick we went 
to Gateshead, and so by the valley of the Tyne to 
Carlisle, and the Lake district of Westmoreland and 
Cumberland. 

After staying ten days in London we went to St. 
Leonard's, intending to remain there some weeks, 
but not finding the place suit us, we went on to 
Brighton, and stayed there till December 6th, when 
we returned to London for the winter. During this 
autumn many Protectionist meetings were held in 
different parts of the country, and it having been 
determined to hold one at East Grinstead, I, at the 
request of the Committee, consented to take the 
chair, having first ascertained Lord Stanley's opinion 
as to the advisability of such meetings. The meeting 
was held on December 20th ; about 200 persons at- 
attended, including most of the respectable inhabit- 
ants of the place, and ako Lord Stanhope and 
Messrs. Foskett and Bell, who attended most of 
these meetings in the South of England. 

The resolutions, and address to the Queen to take 
the sense of the nation on the question of Protection 



170 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

by dissolving Parliament, were carried with only two 
dissentient voices — a schoolmaster from London, and 
a lad from Felbridge. 

I had a curious conversation this month with Dr. 
GutzlafF, the missionary and interpreter who accom- 
panied our forces in China. He considered the 
empire of China to be on the eve of a social revo- 
lution. The result of the war with England des- 
troyed the main grounds of the Emperor's power ; 
the opinion of his infallibility and his invincibility. 
A nearly total eclipse of the sun took place on the 
day on which the British fleet entered the Yang-tse- 
Kiang, which the Chinese considered as a fatal omen. 

The Queen Dowager Adelaide, widow of King 
William the Fourth, died on December the 3rd, 
this year, universally regretted ; she had during the 
Eeform Bill been the object of much abuse from the 
Radicals, on account of her supposed political views, 
but her conduct after the King's death, in refusing 
to place herself in any way in opposition to the 
reigning Queen, when she might have held a rival 
court, gained her by degrees universal respect. Her 
private life was most exemplary and amiable. 

This year also died Mr. Pennington, a most skilful 
physician; though he never took any degree in 
medicine, he had attended both your mother and 
myself from the time of our birth. 

Your uncle, Lord Colville, had been very unwell 
during the spring and summer of this year, and on 
August 1st, his physicians pronounced him to be 
in great danger, but he rallied so much by the 4th, 
that we proceeded on our intended tour. In Sep- 
tember he became much weaker, and less able to 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 171 

bear the effects of the calomel, which alone kept 
down the accumulation of water. He was taken 
alarmingly ill on December 11th, and I was sent 
for to Portland Place, as he was supposed to be 
dying ; but when I arrived he was able to speak a 
few words to me, and he continued to linger till the 
22nd, when he expired about 9 o'clock in the morning. 
Your mother spent the greater part of the four 
last days in Portland Place, to support her sister, 
who was nearly worn out with anxiety and watching. 
On the 29th, I attended Lord Colville's mortal re- 
mains to their last resting-place, in the cemetery at 
Kensal Green. He was kind and amiable in all the 
relations of private life, a good sea officer, and a con- 
sistent politician. In Huskisson's time, he refused 
the Thistle, as it might have been expected that in 
return he should change his opinions upon the Corn 
Laws. When Peel came into office, in 1841, he was 
appointed a lord in waiting to Prince Albert. 

He served as a midshipman in Lord Eodney's vic- 
tory of April 12th, 1782. 

After the peace of 1783, he entered the naval ser- 
vice of the East India Company, but on the breaking 
out of the war in 1793, he returned to the Royal 
Navy, and saw much service in different parts of the 
world, though he had not the good fortune to be 
present at any of the great victories of the war. 

At the time of his death he held the rank of 
Admiral of the White. 

The Parliamentary session of 1850 opened on the 
31st of January, and as the Queen's speech did not 
allude to any measures to be proposed for the relief 
of agriculture, an amendment was moved to the 



172 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

address in both. Houses, but negatived by consider- 
able majorities. 

On February the 11th, bills for the improvement 
of the merchant service were brought in by Mr. 
Labouchere. 

They contained many useful enactments for the 
improved education of masters and mates of mer- 
chant vessels, the registration of seamen, and for 
their better care aud discipline, but the details being 
objected to by the shipowners of Liverpool and other 
ports, they were withdrawn in April to be re-intro- 
duced in a modified shape. 

This delayed the amendment bill so long that it 
did not come on for a second reading in the House 
of Lords till August the 2nd, and was then referred 
to a select committee, but there was no time to con- 
sider the amendments offered, as the session was 
within a day or two of its close. On February the 
25th, Mr. Disraeli moved for a committee to enquire 
into the working of the poor laws, with a view of 
mitigating the distress of the agricultural classes, 
which was negatived by only 21 votes, viz., 273 against 
252. A motion later in the session by Sir E. Buxton, 
for relief to the West Indian Colonies, met with a like 
fate, being negatived by 275 against 234 votes. A mo- 
tion by Mr. Hume, for leave to bring in a Bill to amend 
the national representation, was negatived by 242 
against 96 votes. Several questions arose during this 
session, as to our disputes with Greece respecting their 
claim to certain small islands which we maintained to 
belong to the Ionian Islands ; to their ill-treatment 
of British subjects, and especially of one Don Pacifico, 
a Jew, whose house had been plundered and set on 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 173 

fire by a mob at Athens, for all which, outrages we 
had demanded redress, and failing to receive it, had 
established a blockade of the Greek ports in the Archi- 
pelago, which finally reduced the Greek Govern- 
ment to submit to the terms we demanded. Lord 
Stanley first asked questions respecting these affairs, 
on February the 4th, and the subject was renewed 
on the 11th, when Lord Aberdeen continuing to 
throw doubts on our claim to the Islands, I stated 
from my own official knowledge, that up to the for- 
mation of the Kingdom of Greece, the Lord High 
Commissioners of the Ionian Islands asserted this 
claim, and that in respect to one of these islands 
(Cervi), I had once been prepared myself to act upon 
it. On May the 1 7th, a letter appeared in the news- 
papers, from the French Ministry to their Ambassador 
in London, inviting his return in consequence of an 
asserted breach of faith of the British Government 
relative to the Greek question. 

On the 24th, Lord Palmerston, in the House of 
Commons, made a long explanation of the nego- 
tiation relative to Greece, justifying the resumption 
of coercive measures by our fleet, on the ground that 
the French Minister had withdrawn from the nego- 
tiation. On the other hand, it is asserted that he only 
suspended his negotiation, till a further reference 
could be made to London. 

On June the 17th, Lord Stanley moved a resolu- 
tion, condemning the conduct of Government in 
the dispute with Greece; the debate lasted till 3 
a.m. the next morning, when the House divided, for 
the motion 169, against it 182, thus censuring the 
Government by a majority of 37 votes. 



174 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

In the early part of the evening, before the de- 
bate commenced, a singular scene took place. The 
Peeress's gallery was very fall of ladies come to hear 
the debate, when Lord Brougham came into the 
House, and looking rather eagerly at the gallery, 
saw there the Prussian Minister, Bunsen, snugly 
ensconced in a corner, in conversation with a lady. 

Brougham immediately exclaimed, in a loud voice, 
i There is a stranger in the gallery ;' and Bunsen, 
either not hearing, or not regarding it, took no notice. 
Brougham seeing this, again repeated his exclama- 
tion ; and still no notice being taken, he called upon 
the Usher of the Black Rod to remove him. Sir 
Augustus Clifford was in consequence obliged to go 
up into the gallery, and request Bunsen to retire 
from it ; which he did, with no very good grace. 
The Corps Diplomatique were very indignant at this 
treatment of one of their body ; but as Bunsen was 
clearly where, according to the standing orders of 
the House, he ought not to have been, they had no 
remedy ; except that a separate portion of the gallery 
(opposite to the Ministers' bench) was afterwards set 
apart for their special use; previously they were 
only admitted to the space within the railing round 
the throne. This censure upon the Government by 
the vote of the House of Lords in respect to their 
foreign policy, made their friends in the Commons 
desirous of restoring their credit ; and on the 24th 
Mr. Roebuck brought forward a motion approving 
the foreign policy of the Government, which, affcer a 
long debate (three nights), was carried by a majority of 
46 votes, 810 against 264. Lord John Russell spoke in 
favour of the motion, and Sir Robert Peel and Disraeli 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 175 

against it. This debate was rendered more memorable 
as being the last in which Sir Robert appeared in the 
House of Commons. He had strongly disapproved 
the conduct of Government, and intimated an in- 
tention of giving to their measures a more active 
opposition than he had hitherto done, since quitting 
office. On the very next day (Saturday, June 29th), 
while riding down Constitution Hill, he was thrown 
from his horse, and received such very severe injuries, 
that he expired on the Wednesday following. Great 
eulogiums were passed upon his conduct by the lead- 
ing members of both Houses of Parliament ; and a 
public funeral was offered to him, and a peerage to 
his widow; but both were declined by the family. 
In the beginning of this year, Lord Denman retired 
from the office of Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's 
Bench, and was succeeded by Lord Campbell. 

In June, Lord Cottenham resigned the Great Seal ; 
and after a short interval, during which it was put in 
commission, it was delivered to Sir Thomas Wilde 
(Chief Justice of the Common Pleas), who was created 
Lord Truro. The only other parliamentary measures, 
which produced much discussion during this session, 
were a bill for granting a constitution to the Austra- 
lian Colonies, and one for a new electoral franchise 
in Ireland ; both these were hotly contested in com- 
mittee, and some amendments carried against the 
Government. Besides my remarks on the question of 
the Greek Islands, I spoke shortly on several ques- 
tions : on the second reading of the Eailway Audit 
Bill, on the Piratical Head Money Bill, and the second 
reading of the Mercantile Marine Bill ; on the ques- 
tion of extending the grant of medals for military 



176 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

services, and on Lord Harrowby's question as to 
state of negotiations in the River Plate. I attended 
also the select committees on the Railway Audit Bill 
and the Mercantile Marine Bill ; in this latter I pro- 
posed two clauses, one for enquiring into the cause 
of shipwrecks of merchant vessels, as in the case of 
vessels of war, and the other for the establishment of 
nautical schools. They were favourably received ; 
but, owing to the late period of the session, were not 
then adopted. A new Turnpike Act for the Surrey 
and Sussex Roads passed this session, the former 
having expired. This caused me much correspond- 
ence, and several interviews, with the Clerk and 
Surveyor of the Trusts. 

We spent the latter part of this summer at Tun- 
bridge Wells, where we hired Mr. Bramley's house, 
Nevillin Park, and then went to Brighton till the end 
of November ; and then returned to London, paying 
a visit to Lord Gage at Firle, on our way. Anne 
Colville came and stayed a month with us in Nevillin 
Park. Your uncle, the Recorder, died on the 13th of 
August this year, after a very few days' illness; your 
mother went up to London from Tunbridge Wells, 
on hearing of his alarming state, but arrived too late. 
He left me, together with Sir Robert Dallas, guardians 
of his younger son Henry (then an Ensign in the 20th 
Regiment), which proved a troublesome and thank- 
less office. He soon quitted the army, and ulti- 
mately died of a decline at Nice. Edward Dyneley 
returned this year from his service of three years at 
the Cape of Good Hope, and was appointed to the 
Horse Artillery. In July, accounts arrived of the 
death of the President of the United States, General 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 18S3 TO 1852. 177 

Taylor ; lie was succeeded, according to the consti- 
tution, by the Vice-President, Filmore. 

In August, died the ex-King of the French, Louis- 
Philippe, at Claremont. In the same month, the 
electric telegraph was first laid across the English 
Channel, between Dover and Cape Grisnez. In 
October all England was astonished by the issue of 
a Papal Bull, appointing Cardinal Wiseman to be 
Eoman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, and 
dividing all England into twelve Popish sees. The 
Eoman Catholics in England had hitherto, since the 
death of Queen Mary, been under the supervision 
of Vicars Apostolic ; and this new creation of cleri- 
cal dignitaries, with territorial jurisdiction over their 
co-religionists, appeared, to most men, an invasion 
of the Queen's supremacy. 

It was accordingly resented with much indignation 
both by Clergy and Laity. 

This was increased by a letter of the Prime Mini- 
ster to the Bishop of Durham, Maltby, expressing 
great ' indignation/ but ' no alarm, 5 at the Pope's 
Bull. 

Addresses to the Queen were agreed to at public 
meetings, as well as to the Bishop of London, who 
appeared to be more especially attacked by the 
appointment of an Archbishop of Westminster. 

There were some persons, however, who objected to 
what they called a ' No Popery Cry ;' among these 
was Lord De La Warr, who on this ground declined 
to attend the meeting at Grinstead, held to address 
the Queen against the Papal aggression. 

I went there and moved the address, which was 

N 



178 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

carried ; as well as one to the Bishop of Chichester, 
moved by Mr. Crawford. 

The only opponents were the Tractarians, who 
objected to the wording of the address as inculpating 
them. 

The Parliamentary session of 1851 opened on Feb- 
ruary the 4th, by a speech from the Queen in person, 
in which she alluded to the Papal Bull, and ex- 
pressed her determination to resist any encroach- 
ment upon the independence of the Crown, from 
whatever quarter it might proceed. On the 7th, 
Lord John Russell introduced a Bill into the House 
of Commons, to repel Papal aggression ; his speech 
on this occasion was strong, but the proposed 
measure was weak in its enactments. On the 14th, 
the Bill, which was entitled 'The Ecclesiastical 
Titles Bill,' was read by a majority of 395 votes against 
63, but its further progress was delayed some weeks 
by a defeat of the Ministers. 

On the second reading of a Bill brought in by Mr. 
Locke King (member for Surrey), giving to occupiers 
of houses valued at ten pounds a year, the right of 
voting at elections for the county — the Conservatives 
staying away from the division — the second reading 
was carried against the Ministers by 100 votes 
against 52. The next day, Friday, February the 
21st, had been fixed for bringing in the Budget, but 
Lord John deferred it till the following Monday, and 
it soon became rumoured that he had tendered his 
resignation. 

On Saturday the Queen sent for Lord Stanley, 
and later in the day for Lord Aberdeen and Sir 
James Graham. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 179 

All sorts of rumours were current during Sunday; on 
Monday, when the House of Lords met, Lord Lans- 
downe announced that the late Ministers only held 
their offices till their successors were appointed, and 
that Lord John Russell was attempting to recon- 
struct a government. Lord Stanley said that he 
had fully stated his views to Her Majesty at his 
audience, but should reserve all explanation till the 
crisis was over. On Tuesday, Lord Stanley was 
again sent for by the Queen, and was employed till 
Thursday in endeavouring to form an administra- 
tion, when he finally gave up the attempt, and the 
Queen then sent for the Duke of Wellington to ad- 
vise her. On Friday long explanations were given 
in both Houses. In the Lords by Lords Lans- 
downe, Aberdeen, and Stanley ; in the Commons by 
Lord John Russell and Sir James Graham. It ap- 
peared that the question of the Papal Aggression 
was the primary cause which prevented the Peelite 
party from joining either of the others. Lord Aber- 
deen went so far as to say that legislative interference 
with the Roman Catholic Hierarchy would be perse- 
cution. The Ministerial interregnum continued till 
the following Monday (March 3rd), when at the 
meeting of the House, Lord Lansdowne announced 
that the late Ministers had resumed their offices. So 
ended this crisis of ten days. When Lord Stanley 
was endeavouring to form a Government, he sent for 
your uncle Ellenborough, who seemed willing to join 
him, and left him to try and gain over Goulburn, 
and some others of the Peelite party, but the result; 
of their communications was, that Lord Ellenborough 
declined to join Lord Stanley. 

N 2 



180 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

On the 7th , Lord John Eussell fixed the second 
reading of the Soman Catholic Ecclesiastical Titles 
Bill for the following week, to be diluted by the 
omission of the second and third clauses. It passed 
this stage without opposition, but it did not go into 
committee till May the 16th, when a division was 
taken, but there were only 35 opposers, against 116, 
in favour of proceeding. In Committee, Sir Frederick 
Thesiger moved amendments with the view of ex- 
tending the provisions of the Bill to the introduction 
of all Papal briefs ; and to facilitate the prosecution 
of offenders, and upon division they were both carried, 
though opposed by the Government. The Bill was 
read a third time, and passed by the House of Com- 
mons on July the 4th. These amendments were 
retained by considerable majorities, against an at- 
tempt of the Government to expunge them. 

The Bill was read a second time in the Lords by 
a majority of 227 votes, there being 265 against 38, 
and so it became law. 

Mr. Locke King's Bill, the cause of so much com- 
motion, was negatived on second reading by 229 votes 
to 89. A Bill for admitting Jews to sit in Parliament, 
passed through the Commons by a majority of 202 
against 177; but in the Lords was rejected on the 
second reading, by 146 against 108. This session 
Government brought in a Bill to amend the Mercantile 
Marine Bill of last year, and in the Committee in the 
House of Commons, Mr. Labouchere himself inserted 
a clause similar to that which I proposed last year, for 
enquiring into the causes of wrecks of merchant ves- 
sels ; but opposed any extension of the powers of Naval 
Courts to be held under the Act. The Bill did not 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1»33 TO 1852. 181 

come up to the Lords till the end of July. There 
were several close divisions in the Commons upon 
motions made by opposition or independent Members. 

On Mr. Disraeli's motion in February, on Agricul- 
tural Distress, Ministers had only a majority of 14 
votes — 267 for and 281 against it. In March, Lord 
Duncan carried his motion respecting the revenues 
of Royal Forests against Government, by one vote, 
120 to 119. In April, Mr. Herries' motion, for re- 
ducing the Income Tax, was negatived by 278 to 
230 ; but in May the proposal of Government to re- 
new the existing tax for three years, was met by an 
amendment to continue it for one year only ; and this 
was carried by 244 against 230. Mr. Disraeli's motion, 
'That owners and occupiers of land be considered in 
any reduction of taxation,' was negatived by 263 
against 250. At the opening of the session, Lord Shaf- 
tesbury retired from the chair of the Committees of 
the House of Lords, having filled the office for twenty- 
four years ; he was succeeded by Lord Redesdale. I 
was named a member of the ' Committee of Selec- 
tion ' vacated by Lord Shaftesbury. 

I spoke shortly upon the second reading of the 
Mercantile Marine Amendment Act, and on several 
other occasions this session ; and was a member of 
the select committee on registration of assurances, 
and sat as chairman upon one group of private bills. 
On May 1st, the Great International Exhibition of 
Arts and Manufactures was opened by the Queen, 
who went in state from Buckingham Palace, to the 
building in Hyde Park where it was held. This build- 
ing was the first of the kind constructed solely of iron 
and glass; and though not so large as the Crystal 



182 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Palace, was sufficiently lofty to contain in the transepts 
two of the large old elm trees opposite the Knights- 
bridge Cavalry Barracks. The Exhibition continued 
open till the end of October, and attracted vast crowds 
of people to London, foreigners as well as English. 

On June 18th, we went down to Kidbrooke to take 
possession, Mr. Fullerton's lease having expired. 

The old lady died the preceding autumn. 

On July 30th, we went down to remain, and stayed 
there till the end of the year, receiving visits during 
the time from your aunt Colville, Lord and Lady 
Amherst, Captain (afterwards Sir Richard) Dundas, 
Admiral Moorsom, the Henry Ramsdens, and George 
Toury. 

I this year commenced tile-draining on Tablehurst 
and Hindleap Farms, with such good results, that my 
tenants subsequently asked to do more, on having 
the draining tiles given to them. 

At Christmas, I closed my school at Forest Row, 
having merged it in the new national schools built 
on Forest Row Green ; as I considered by so doing, 
a larger and more permanent place of education 
would be established for the neighbourhood. Seventy- 
two children were present at the final examination on 
December 18th. 

In March of this year, your cousin, Henrietta 
Abbot, died after a very short illness, having just 
completed her sixteenth year; and in September, 
your aunt Dyneley died at By town, in Canada. Her 
son Douglas had just before returned to Europe, 
having obtained a commission in the army, and been 
appointed to the 23rd Regiment (Welsh Fusiliers), 
in which he remained, till his death at Sebastopol, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 183 

when he fell, gallantly leading his men to the second 
attack on the Redan, upon the 8th September, 1855. 
Frederick Ramsden also returned this autumn from 
Canada, having exchanged from the Rifle Brigade 
into the Coldstream Guards. He, like his cousin, 
was doomed to fall in the Crimean war; after leading 
his company to the attack on the heights of Alma, 
he was mortally wounded by a musket ball, and 
afterwards bayonetted by the Russians in the deadly 
fight of Inkerman. 

This year, auother insurrection broke out in Por- 
tugal, headed by Marshal Saldanha. He at first 
failed in seizing Santarem ; and appeared to make no 
progress, till the garrison of Oporto mutinied and 
declared in his favour; other troops followed this 
example. The Count de Thomar then quitted Por- 
tugal, and the King returned to Lisbon. In May, 
Saldanha arrived there by sea, with 3,000 troops, 
and was received with acclamation. None of these 
insurrections were aimed at the overthrow of the 
existing dynasty, but at certain changes of ministers 
more or less favourable to democratic changes in the 
constitution. In Prance, there were several changes 
terminating in the celebrated coup d'etat of the 
2nd December, 1851, when the President of the Re- 
public, finding that the Assembly were determined 
not to agree to repeal the Electoral Law of May, 1849, 
which restricted the franchise, suddenly arrested 
General Cavaignac and Changarnier, Mons. Thiers, 
and other military and civil chiefs ; proclaimed the 
Assembly dissolved, and summoned a new one, to be 
elected by universal suffrage between the 14th and 
21st of the same month. On the 4th, he arrested 



184 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

150 deputies, who had assembled and proclaimed his 
deposition. On the 6th, some attempts were made 
to raise barricades in Paris; but they were imme- 
diately pnt down by the troops. On the 9th, it was 
proclaimed that order was restored. Thirty-four 
departments were declared in a state of siege ; and 
the tumultuous risings, which took place in the 
south-east of France, were quelled by the troops 
without difficulty. On the 1st of January, 1852, th% 
scrutiny of votes being completed, the result was 
declared to be in favour of Louis Napoleon and his 
new constitution ; and he proceeded in state to Notre 
Dame, where a thanksgiving was offered up, and 
from thence to the Tuileries, his future residence. In 
the course of the same month, he banished, by a 
decree, from France and its colonies, sixty-two ex- 
deputies ; and by a subsequent one dissolved the 
National Guard, to be commanded, when reorganised, 
by officers appointed by the Government, instead of 
being elected as before. He next issued a decree, 
that the whole of the Orleans property in France 
should be sold within twelve months ; and he re- 
annexed to the State the dotations made by Louis- 
Philippe in 1830. This was considered so harsh a 
proceeding, that De Morny and others of the Minis- 
ters resigned. Persiguy was appointed Minister of 
the Interior. In May, the President distributed 
Eagles to all the regiments of the French army. In 
the autumn, he made a tour of the provinces; and 
at Bordeaux made a great speech, in which he 
announced the opinion, that for France, e L'empire, 
c'est la paix ' (though some wags asserted, that his 
real words were, 'L'empire, c'est l'epee'). On his 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 185 

return to Paris, he was received with acclamations as 
Emperor. At the meeting of the Senate, on the 4th 
of November, he sent them a message that he was 
willing to accept the Imperial crown, offered him by 
the acclamation of the people, if ratified by a vote ; 
and accordingly, in December, he was elected by 
nearly 8,000,000 votes, and took the style of Napo- 
leon the Third. 

To return to our own affairs. On Christmas Day 
(1851), the 'Times' announced the resignation of 
Lord Palmerston. This event caused much surprise, 
as Lord Palmerston had held the seals of the Foreign 
Office in every Whig government since 1830, and 
his policy had been highly applauded by his party. 
By degrees it was whispered that he had been dis- 
missed by Lord John Russell, for sending some 
despatch to a Minister abroad, without submitting it 
first to the Queen for her approval ; or for having 
subsequently altered it. However this may be, Lord 
Palmerston was not long before he found an oppor- 
tunity of taking his revenge. On the 30th December 
Lord Granville, who held the subordinate office of 
Vice-President of the Board of Trade, received the 
seals of the Foreign Office. Some other Ministerial 
changes were made, previous to the meeting of Par- 
liament ; Mr. Fox Maule becoming President of the 
Board of Control, vice Lord Broughton; and Mr. 
Vernon Smith succeeding Fox Maule as Secretary of 
War. Lord Stanley of Alderley was the new Vice- 
President of the Board of Trade ; and Lord Cowley 
was appointed Ambassador at Paris, in the room of 
Lord Normanby. Parliament met on the 3rd of 
February, when Lord John Eussell announced that 



186 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Government would introduce a measure of parlia- 
mentary reform on the 9th, and a bill for embodying 
a local militia. The Reform Bill, which was brought 
in accordingly, disappointed the hopes of the Eadical 
party; and the Conservatives resolved to wait, and 
see the details before they opposed its progress. The 
Militia Bill was expected to pass without difficulty, 
as the country was becoming aware of its defenceless 
state, if any invasion should be attempted. Offers to 
raise volunteer corps of riflemen were made by several 
localities, provided the Government would give them 
encouragement. A meeting for this purpose was held 
at East Grin stead, and numerously attended by the 
neighbouring gentry and farmers; but when a second 
meeting was held, to arrange details, the spirit ap- 
peared to have evaporated. The Government did 
nothing to promote the movement, refusing to pro- 
vide arms, or to be at any expense for Volunteer 
Corps. On the 19th, Lord Naas, in the House of 
Commons, moved to censure the Lord Lieiitenant of 
Ireland (Lord Clarendon) for his conduct in pur- 
chasing the support of the 6 World ' newspaper ; but 
his motion was rejected by 229 against 137 ; giving 
a majority of 92 in favour of Government. On the 
following day, on bringing up the report of the com- 
mittee on the bill for amending the laws relating to 
the Militia, Lord Palmerston moved to leave out the 
word 'local;' by which the Militia would be liable to 
serve in any part of the kingdom, instead of being 
restricted to their own counties. To this Lord John 
Eussell objected, as a change in the principle of the 
bill, and equivalent to a vote of want of confidence in 
the Government. A debate ensued, and upon the 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 187 

division, Lord Palmerston's amendment was carried, 
against the Government, by a majority of eleven votes 
(136 — 125). Lord John Eussell, in consequence, 
refused to go on with the bill ; and upon a question, 
by Sir Benjamin Hall, intimated that he should 
resign. The next morning, Lord John, after visiting 
Lord Lansdowne, went to the Queen; and then sum- 
moned a Cabinet Council, which met at two o'clock, 
and remained sitting till past four. On the next 
day, Sunday, the Queen sent for Lord Stanley, now 
become Lord Derby, by the death of his father ; and 
on Monday, the ' Morning Herald ' contained a list of 
the persons appointed to Cabinet offices. 

At twelve I went to the House of Lords to attend 
the Select Committee on Criminal Law procedure; 
when Lord Truro moved to adjourn it, in consequence 
of change of law advisers of the Crown. At five 
Lord Lansdowne announced that Ministers only held 
their offices till their successors were appointed, and 
made a farewell speech. Tuesday was occupied by 
Lord Derby in completing his Cabinet ; on Wednes- 
day, as I was setting out for the Carlton, I re- 
ceived a note from him, desiring me to come to him 
immediately. I proceeded at once to St. James's 
Square, and found in the dining-room Lord Malmes- 
bury (Foreign Secretary), and Lord Eglinton (Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland), who told me the only two 
offices still vacant were Vice-President of the Board of 
Trade and Under-Secretary for the Colonies, but they 
did not know what was intended for me. I was 
presently called into the library, where Lord Derby 
received me very cordially, and offered me the post of 
Vice -President of the Board of Trade, a Privy Coun- 



188 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

cillor's office. This I at once gratefully accepted; 
and proceeded to call on Mr. Henley (M.P. for Oxford- 
shire), who was the new President of the Board of 
Trade. Having done this, I returned home to ac- 
quaint your mother with my new honours. On Fri- 
day (27th) I went, by summons, to Buckingham 
Palace, to be sworn in of the Privy Council. All the 
new Ministers attended the Council, to receive the 
seals of office. 

The new Privy Councillors knelt on both knees 
whilst taking the Oaths of Supremacy, Allegiance, 
and Fidelity; then each in succession, kissed the 
hand of the Queen, who sate at the head of the 
Council table ; shook hands with each Privy Coun- 
cillor, beginning with Prince Albert, and then took 
his seat at the table. Some formal business was then 
transacted and the Council broke up. I afterwards 
accompanied Mr. Henley to the office of the Board 
of Trade, to make ourselves acquainted with the 
permanent heads of departments, and the state of 
the business. At five o'clock Lord Derby took his 
place in the House of Lords as Prime Minister, 
declared his reasons for accepting office, and gave an 
outline of his proposed policy. Lord Grey carped at 
his expressions respecting Free Trade as not suffi- 
ciently explicit. Lord Fitzwilliam differed from Lord 
Grey, considering that the new Government should 
have a fair trial. Lord Aberdeen would defend ' the 
Legacy of Free Trade left by Sir Eobert Peel,' but 
on other points agreed with Lord Derby. 

The following morning I called on your uncle, 
Henry Law, to offer him the post of my private sec- 
retary, which, on consideration, he declined (and I 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 189 

afterwards appointed Mr. Larkyns, a clerk in the 
office) and then proceeded to Whitehall, to commence 
the duties of niy office. The Board of Trade is, 
in theory, a ' Committee of the Privy Council for 
the affairs of Trade and Plantations,' the Sove- 
reign naming the President of the Committee, and 
another Member Vice-President, to act as Chair- 
man, and have all the authority, in the absence of 
the President. In practice the whole business is 
conducted by the President and the Vice-President, 
who divide it between them as they please. As, 
beside the affairs of Trade, the departments of Science 
and Art, of Railways, and of Mercantile Marine 
were, in 1852, under the Board of Trade, Mr. Henley 
arranged that he would take the principal charge 
of Railway matters and the Board of Practical Art ; 
and that I should take the department of Mercantile 
Marine, and of Charters of incorporation with limit- 
ed liability, but each to have a general knowledge of 
everything transacting in the office which might 
undergo Parliamentary discussion. As the Vice- 
Presidentship had, strictly, no salary attached to it, 
some other office was also given to the holder of 
this ; it had, till lately, been that of Master of the 
Mint, but this situation having, in Lord John Russell's 
tenure of office, been divested of its political charac- 
ter and given to a practical assayer, my predecessor 
held also the office of Paymaster- General, which was 
continued to me, with the usual salary of 2,000^. 
a year. 

The duties of this office were carried on by a 
deputy Paymaster-General, the chief being only 
called on for certain formal signatures, it being 



190 MEMORANDA OF MT LIFE. 

impossible for him to interfere in the complicated 
arrangements of the office, without devoting to it the 
whole of his time, to the exclusion of any other 
official duties, while an immense pecuniary responsi- 
bility rested upon him. This will appear from the 
following statements of the offices consolidated by 
the Act of the 5th and 6th of William IY., and of 
the Services to be paid by the Paymaster- General : — 

1. Paymaster of the Forces. 

2. Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital. 

3. Treasurer of the Navy. 

4. Treasurer of the Ordnance. 

And by the 11th and 12th Victoria, the duties of 

5. Paymaster of Civil Services. 

6. Paymaster of Exchequer Bills were transferred 
to the Paymaster-General. 

The Services to be paid by him were — 

1. All Army Services. 

2. All Commissariat Services. 

3. All Naval Services. 

4. All Ordnance Services. 

5. All formerly called ' Army Extraordinaries.' 

6. All Civil Services in Miscellaneous Estimates. 

7. All payments charged on the Consolidated Fund. 

8. Principal and Interest of Exchequer Bills. 

To this long list other duties have since been added, 
and surely the holder of this office would have suffi- 
cient employment in attending to its business, with- 
out having a considerable share of another political 
office cast upon him. The only business arising from 
it which I was expected to attend was, as Treasurer 
of Chelsea Hospital, to take the Chair at the Monthly 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 191 

Meeting of the Commissioners, and as Treasurer of 
the Navy I had certain nominations to the schools 
of Greenwich Hospital. 

Besides all these duties of office, I had to attend to 
all Government Bills not expected to be opposed 
(therefore called ' matters of course'), and see them 
passed through all their stages through the House of 
Lords. This, though not requiring deep study of 
their contents, obliged me to make myself sufficiently 
master of them to state their general provisions, and 
give some answer to any question which might be 
raised accidentally. 

The first Bill of which I had the official conduct 
was, however, of a more important character, being 
one for the amendment of the law for granting 
patents on inventions. The subject had been referred 
in 1851 to a select committee, who reported in favour 
of a change in the existing law, which should remove 
the delays and diminish the cost of obtaining a 
protest. A Bill was accordingly introduced, and 
passed through the House of Lords, but failed in the 
Commons ; it was brought in again at the commence- 
ment of this session, as was also another with the 
same object by Lord Brougham. 

One of our first duties at the Board of Trade was 
to construct a new Bill out of these. On March 6th 
I saw the Chancellor (Lord St. Leonards), and settled 
which of Lord Brougham's clauses should be adopted. 
On the 18th I presented the Bill, which was read a 
first time and then referred to a select committee, 
which went through all its clauses in one day. It 
then received no further opposition in the Lords, and 
was read the third time on April 20th, and sent down 



192 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

to the Commons. There it received several amend- 
ments, to which, after some discussion, the Lords 
-ultimately yielded. 

In April I proposed to the officers of the Naval 
Department (Captain Beechey, R.N., Captain Walker, 
and Mr. Farrar) my plan for establishing at the prin- 
cipal ports nautical schools and lectures, for the 
benefit of mates, seamen, and apprentices, where 
they might learn navigation, and get some insight 
into the theory of their profession. My proposal 
was favourably received, and it was resolved to open 
schools at four of the chief ports of the kingdom, 
and afterwards extend them further as the funds at 
the disposal of the board might admit. London and 
Liverpool concurred readily in the proposal, and 
schools were established in these two places during 
the winter. Steps were being taken for establishing a 
third at Shields, when the change of Government 
put a stop to further proceedings. The London 
nautical school survived only a few months, but that 
at Liverpool continued to nourish. 

The charter of the East India Company expiring 
in 1853, Lord Lansdowne, two days before the resig- 
nation of Lord John Russell's Ministry, had given 
notice of moving for the appointment of a select 
committee to consider its renewal. This motion was 
renewed by Lord Derby's Government, and the com- 
mittee of the Lords met for the first time on May 6th, 
and continued till the end of the session. Lord 
Salisbury, Privy Seal, took the chair, and I also, as a 
member of the Government, regularly attended its 
meetings. 

In the House of Commons, the second reading of 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 193 

the Militia Bill was carried, on April 26th, by a 
majority of 150 votes, 315 — 165 ; and in the Com- 
mittee the Government had large majorities in favour 
of clauses consolidating former Acts, and fixing the 
number of men to be raised. A motion of Mr. Locke 
King for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the County 
Electoral Franchise was negatived by 202 votes against 
149, giving Ministers a majority of 73. But their 
proposal to fill up the vacant seats for St. Albans 
and Sudbury was negatived by 234 to 148, leaving 
them in a minority of 86. This, however, was the 
only defeat they received during this session. Some 
Opposition wag said that ' Ministers were like 
pheasants — they were not to be killed before the 1st 
of October,' alluding to the new Parliament, which 
was expected to meet about that day. 

The Militia Bill was read a second time in the 
House of Lords on June 15th, the only opponent 
being Lord Grey, who spoke against it for more than 
two hours. It passed through its further stages 
without opposition, and the Patent Law Bill and 
County Eate Bill having also passed, Parliament was 
prorogued by the Queen in person on July 1st, and 
dissolved the same day. 

In January of this year I commenced arrangements 
for purchasing the lease of 32 Upper Brook Street, 
Anne Colville kindly furnishing me with the means 
by a loan of 5,000Z. at 4 per cent, interest. On 
April 2nd the purchase-money for the lease and 
fixtures (4,650Z.) was paid, and we moved into our 
new house from South Audley Street on May 1st. 
On April 23rd we dined with Her Majesty (for the 
first time) at Buckingham Palace, in 'frock dress.' 

o 



194 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

The hour on the card was eight o'clock ; we arrived 
at the palace punctually at that time, and were 
shown into the great gallery, where the company 
assembled, including the lords in waiting and gentle- 
men of the household. The Queen, accompanied by 
Prince Albert and the Duchess of Kent, and at- 
tended by her lady in waiting and two maids of 
honour, with the Duchess's lady in waiting, came in 
at the end of the gallery next the staircase, and 
after shaking hands with the ladies and bowing to 
the gentlemen, walked through the whole length of 
the gallery to the dining-room, preceded by the 
gentlemen of the household and followed by the com- 
pany. At table the Queen sat in the middle of one 
side, having Prince Albert on her left hand and the 
Prussian Minister on her right. 

The dinner was in the usual style of great dinners, 
the band of one of the regiments of the Guards 
playing during the whole time. After dessert the 
Queen rose, followed by the ladies, and retired. 
Prince Albert remained some time longer with the 
gentlemen, and then left the room alone. We fol- 
lowed in about five minutes, and returned to the 
gallery, where we found the Queen and the ladies 
sitting on one of the ottomans against the wall, the 
Prince standing drinking his coffee. We remained 
standing near the bottom of the gallery, where 
coffee was served to us ; and then Prince Albert 
first, and afterwards the Queen, came up and spoke 
to each gentleman separately. 

The Queen then moved to a table near the centre 
of the gallery, where she sat down with the ladies 
and the Prussian Minister and the Duke of Argyle, 



POLITICAL EVERTS, 1833 TO 1852. 195 

and entered into general conversation. A whist- 
table was also set out, at which four gentlemen 
played, and the others sate or stood near it. Tea was 
handed round, and when the Queen moved up from 
the end of the gallery her private band of musicians 
was stationed there, and played during the rest of 
the evening. About half-past ten the Queen retired, 
and the party broke up. 

The number, including the household, was about 
twenty-four. This, I fancy, is the usual routine of 
Her Majesty's dinner-parties. 

Both the Queen and Prince were very affable in 
their manner : he commenced his conversation by 
asking some question about my office, and lamented 
the absence of a Government map department. 

May 13th was kept as the Queen's birthday, and 
the usual official dinners given by the Cabinet Minis- 
ters. I dined with the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
-^a party of thirty, consisting of the Speaker and 
independent supporters of the Government in the 
House of Commons, and official persons connected 
with the Departments of Eevenue and Trade. My 
official position also caused us to receive invitations 
to the parties at Court, at the Ambassadors', and 
official houses, beyond our usual quantity ; but the en- 
joyment of them was damped almost from the begin- 
ning, and latterly altogether destroyed, by the illness of 
your aunt Colville, which commenced on March 20th, 
and soon showed symptoms of its fatal nature. She 
was at the time staying in Charles Street, Berkeley 
Square, and your mother was unremitting in her 
attendance upon her from first to last. The term of 
her house in Charles Street having expired, she moved, 

o 2 



196 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

on May 1st, to 39 Upper Brook Street, to be near us 
in onr new house. She was able to take an airing 
occasionally in the carriage with your mother up to 
the 19th, after which day she could not leave her 
room. 

I went to her by her desire on the 23rd, and found 
her in bed looking pale and thin, but perfectly calm 
and collected. She gave her directions to me, as one 
of her executors, as to several things she wished to be 
done after her death ; she afterwards saw her nephew, 
Lord Colville, on the same subject. This was the last 
time I saw her alive. From this day to the 29th she 
became weaker and more suffering, and expired early 
on the morning of the 30th (Whit Sunday.) On the 
following Saturday I followed her remains to the ceme- 
tery in Kensal Green, where the service was performed 
and the coffin deposited in the same vault as her late 
husband's. By Anne Colville's death I was deprived of 
a kind and amiable sister, but to your mother the loss 
was irreparable. She was the inseparable companion 
of her childhood and bosom friend of her matured age ; 
their feelings, tastes, and occupations were in unison ; 
they had lived under the same roof for more than 
thirty years, when your mother married, and always 
afterwards kept up an uninterrupted correspondence 
by letter, when they did not meet in London or at 
each other's houses. Immediately after the funeral 
we went down to Kidbrooke till the following Mon- 
day, when my official duties compelled me to return 
to London. 

As soon as Parliament was dissolved we went down 
to Kidbrooke for the summer, and remained there 
till October 5th, during which time we received 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 197 

visits from the Henry Laws, Dyneleys, and Freddy 
Rainsden and her daughter Selina, Lord and Lady 
Beaumont, and Miss Stapleton and Admiral Moor- 
som. I went up to the Board of Trade one day in 
each week, in pursuance of an arrangement made 
beforehand with Mr. Henley ; and during the month 
of August, when he went to Ems for his health, I 
was left in sole charge of the department. Colonel 
Dyneley returned from his command in Canada in 
the month of June, and about the same time we heard 
of the death of Lady Eleanor Law. 

In the beginning of August the elections to Parlia- 
ment terminated, and parties were so equally divided 
that it became evident that if the followers of the 
late Sir Robert Peel, who now adhered to Gladstone, 
should join the Opposition, the Ministry could not 
effectually resist their combined forces without fur- 
ther strength. 

Walpole told me long afterwards that he had re- 
presented this to Lord Derby, and offered to resign his 
own post, Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 
ment, if by so doing Lord Palmerston could be induced 
to take office ; but Lord Derby told him that he knew 
that the Queen would not consent to receive Lord 
Palmerston as a Minister. Whether any offers were 
made I never heard, but the ultimate decision of the 
Cabinet was to meet Parliament as it was. 

On September 15th, when I arrived at the God- 
stone station on my way to London, the station- 
master put into my hands the ' Times ' of that day, 
announcing the death of the Duke of Wellington, 
who had expired the da} r before at Walmer Castle, 
in the 84th year of his age, after a few hours' illness. 






198 MEMOKANDA OF MT LIFE. 

The next day the newspapers were filled with articles 
on his life and character, and edged with black as for 
a Royal mourning. 

The body remained at Walmer till the beginning 
of November, when it was removed to Chelsea 
Hospital, where it lay in state, and on November 18th 
was buried with great pomp in the Cathedral of St. 
Paul. 

On October 7th I recommenced my daily attend- 
ance at the Board of Trade, and arranged a quarterly 
return of shipping in an improved form, dividing the 
trades into home, foreign, and coasting, and giving 
the exact number of seamen employed, which none 
of the former ones had done, as they only showed 
the number of voyages made (entrances and clear- 
ances), not the number of ships employed. My chief 
occupation was the preparation of an amended Mer- 
cantile Marine Bill, which Mr. Farrar, Secretary to 
the Naval Department, first drew up, and then it 
was gone through, clause by clause, by myself with 
the officers of the Naval Department, Captain 
Beechey and Captain Walker. This took us eight 
sittings. It was then reprinted, and the clauses again 
gone through by Mr. Farrar and myself. It was 
next submitted to Mr. Henley, who examined it very 
carefully, discussed the points, made various amend- 
ments, and ultimately, on December 4th, directed it 
to be again printed in what might be considered the 
shape it would be laid before Parliament ; but here 
our labours were cut short. The portion of the Bill 
which I laboured to improve was that relating to the 
discipline of merchant ships and the formation of 
Naval Courts Martial abroad, so as to introduce 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 199 

some uniformity of system into the Merchant Ser- 
vice, and some more easy mode of obtaining justice 
between the masters and their crews than the exist- 
ing law afforded in cases of offences committed in 
foreign parts. 

The new Parliament was opened by commission 
on November 4th, on which day I took the oaths and 
my seat. 

On the 5th, the House of Lords met at half-past 
eleven, and proceeded to Westminster Abbey to at- 
tend Divine service, it being the anniversary of the 
Gunpowder Plot. The Bishop of London preached. 
At half-past two the House of Commons brought 
their Speaker Elect to the bar of the House of Lords, 
to receive the Queen's approval. I sate as one of the 
Commissioners. On the 11th, the Queen came to 
Parliament in person to deliver her speech. The 
address in return was moved by Lord Donoughmore, 
and seconded by Lord Bath. Lords Lansdowne 
and Brougham made eulogies on the Duke of Wel- 
lington, and no other Opposition Peer spoke. Lord 
Derby made an impressive speech, and declared that 
the country had, by the result of the elections, 
decided in favour of free trade, and he was prepared 
to submit to its decision. No amendment was 
moved in either House. 

On the 18th, I attended the Duke of Wellington's 
funeral, as one of his 'private friends,' the present 
Duke having very civilly invited me to do so, though 
I could scarcely claim that honour ; but having re- 
ceived this mark of regard, I willingly accepted it, 
instead of taking my place in the procession as 
Paymaster- General. The funeral being that of a 



200 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Field Marshal, a large body of troops of all arms 
marched in the procession, besides small detach- 
ments of picked men from every regiment in the 
service ; all the Ministers also followed in their 
carriages. I left onr own honse at a quarter past 
seven, to join the procession at the Horse Guards, 
from which it started at 8 a.m.; but owing to the 
crowd of carriages in the streets I did not reach 
the Horse Guards till half-past eight. The troops 
were then alreadv nling off, but the mourning coach 
in which I was to go (and which contained also Lord 
Mahon, Lord Downes, and Mr. Bobert Clive) did 
not move off till half-past nine. 

The line of procession was up Constitution Hill, 
along Piccadilly, down St. James's Street, along Pall 
Mall, to Charing Cross, and thence by the Strand, Fleet 
Street, &c, to St. Paul's. The streets, windows, and 
in many places roofs of houses were crowded with 
spectators, all extremely orderly. From Temple Bar 
to St. Paul's the streets were lined with the troops 
who had led the procession. We reached St. Paul's 
about half-past twelve, and the scene inside the 
Cathedral was very impressive. 

It was filled from the gallery round the dome to 
the floor with spectators ; the members of both 
Houses of Parliament had seats allotted to them, 
and attended in large numbers. The coffin was 
placed under the centre of the dome upon a plat- 
form, which at the words 'Dust to dust' slowly 
descended into the vaults below. The Duke having 
been a Field Marshal of several foreign armies, 
officers of high rank from those countries were 
placed round the coffin bearing the baton of the 



1833 TO 1852. 201 

Duke as Field Marshal of their resp active nations. 
It was afterwards remarked as singular that the 
Russian was Prince Gortschakoff, who commanded 
at Sebastopol when besieged by the English in 
1855. 

The weather during the preceding fortnight had 
been excessively wet, and it became so again after- 
wards; but the day of the funeral was fortunately 
dry and, for November, fine. The Duke of Welling- 
ton was succeeded in the command of the army by 
Lord Hardinge; in the Colonelcy of the Grenadier 
Guards by Prince Albert ; as Constable of the Tower 
by Lord Combermere. 

The Wardenship of the Cinque Ports was given 
to Lord Dalhousie, and the University of Oxford 
elected Lord Derby, as their Chancellor in his room. 
On the 19th Lord Derby, in moving the adjournment 
of the House, made an eloquent speech on the cere- 
monial of the preceding day, concluding with his 
opinion that a great and wealthy nation, in order to 
secure peace, must always be fully provided for its 
own defence — a maxim which the Duke had 
earnestly, and for a long time vainly, impressed upon 
the former Government, but which Lord Derby's 
Government endeavoured to enforce. The Select 
Committee on the East India Company's Charter 
was revived, and we agreed to meet three days in 
a week. 

The leaders of the different sections of the Oppo- 
sition — Lord Aberdeen, Lord John Russell, and Sir 
James Graham — although they had offered no amend- 
ment to the address in answer to the Queen's speech, 
had not been idle, and it was settled that Mr. Charles 



202 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Villiers should move a resolution in the House of 
Commons in favour of free trade, and censuring the 
conduct of Government in regard, to it. This was 
brought forward on Tuesday, November 23rd. It 
was opposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and 
a third form of resolution was moved by Lord Palmer- 
ston, in the same sense as Mr. Yiliiers, but omitting 
the words offensive to the Government. 

The debate was continued by adjournment till one 
o'clock on Saturday morning (27th), when Disraeli 
having withdrawn his amendment, Mr. Yilliers's 
motion was negatived by 386 against 256, and Lord 
Palmerston's carried by 468 against 53. 

On December 6th, Lord Clanricarde moved a simi- 
lar resolution in the House of Lords, to which Lord 
Beaumont moved an amendment, in the same words 
as those agreed to in the House of Commons. This 
Lord Clanricarde objected to as a breach of the 
agreement made on a previous day with Lord Derby 
as to terms of amendment. Some confusion followed, 
and Lord Radnor moved to adjourn the debate, but 
Lord Harrowby having suggested the omission of 
some words, which Lord Derby consented to, the 
former amendments were all withdrawn, and the 
amended resolution was agreed to nem. con. The 
Opposition determined to make their next attack 
upon the Budget, which Disraeli had promised to 
bring in before Christmas, and he accordingly 
opened it on December 3rd, and fixed the 16th for 
going into Committee of Ways and Means on the 
House Tax, which he proposed to double in amount 
and extend to houses of 10/.; the Income Tax to 
be modified and extended; the duties on malt, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1833 TO 1852. 203 

hops, and tea to be reduced, and also the charge 
for Lighthouses. The debate was continued by ad- 
journments till the 16th, when the House divided on 
the first resolution relating to the House Tax, which 
was negatived by 805 against 286. 

In consequence of this defeat the Cabinet met the 
following day (17th) at noon, and agreed to resign. 
Lord Derby went immediately to the Queen, at 
Osborne, to communicate their decision. At five 
o'clock Lord Malmesbury moved the adjournment of 
the House of Lords to the following Monday. Mr. 
Henley, immediately upon the result of the meeting 
of the Cabinet, gave over his papers to Mr. Booth, 
the Senior Secretary of the Board of Trade, and took 
leave of the office. I determined to remain till a suc- 
cessor should be appointed, in order to carry on the 
current business of the department. The Queen, on 
receiving Lord Derby's resignation, sent for Lord 
Aberdeen to form a new Ministry. On Monday 
(20th) Lord Derby called a meeting of his supporters 
in both Houses of Parliament, in Downing Street, 
and explained to them his reasons for resigning the 
Government, recommending union among themselves 
and forbearance towards the new Government, so 
long as it should act upon Conservative principles. 
At five o'clock, in the House of Lords, he announced 
that Ministers only held their offices till their suc- 
cessors should be appointed, and explained the reasons 
for his resigning, in the same terms as in the morn- 
ing. On the 21st, I attended a meeting of the 
Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital, and when the 
business was finished took my leave. On the 24th, I 
attended for the ]ast time at the Board of Trade ; 



204 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

on this day the new Ministry was said to be com- 
pleted, and to include, besides the friends of Lord 
Aberdeen and Lord John Russell, Lord Palinerston, 
Sir William Molesworth, and Mr. Charles Yilliers. 
No writs were, however, moved for the new Ministers 
in the House of Commons. 

On Monday, the 2 7th, the new Ministers took their 
places, and Lord Aberdeen expounded the principles 
of bis Government to be ' Conservatively Liberal/ to 
cany out Free Trade, Education, Law Reform, and to 
correct defects in the Parliamentary representation. 
Lord Derby replied, and the House adjourned till 
February 10th, 1853. 

The ' obstructive ' Government of Lord Derby 
having thus fallen, the country was promised by the 
writers and speakers of the Liberal party an un- 
bounded prospect of peace and prosperity ; it did, 
however, happen that in two years from that date we 
had * drifted ' into war with Russia, the ill-manage- 
ment of which caused the disruption of Lord Aber- 
deen's Government and his own resignation ; and we 
have since learnt that even under a system of free 
trade our manufacturers may, from the internal 
quarrels of other nations, suffer privations at least as 
great as ever befell them under the laws of protective 
duties. The narrative of these events I must, however, 
defer to some future period, and here close the second 
part of my memoir with the termination of the year 
1852. 

I must not omit, however, to mention that on 
December 13th the Duke of Northumberland (First 
Lord of the Admiralty) very kindly offered me the 
post of Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, which was 



POLITICAL EVENTS,.. 1833 TO 1852. 205 

tlien vacant ; but as I doubted whether I could hold 
it consistently with my office of Yice-President of the 
Board of Trade, I asked his permission, before giving 
my answer, to consult Lord Derby; and as he was 
of the same opinion I felt obliged to decline it. 

In November, this year, your cousin, Charles 
Abbot, took his degree as B.A. at Oxford. 

The only foreign events of this year which remain 
to be mentioned are the occurrences in the River 
Plate. In February the Brazilian Squadron forced 
the passage of the Parana, and transported the army 
of General Urquisa across it from Entre-Rios to Santa 
Fe. In March their combined forces totally defeated 
the army of Buenos Ayres ; and Rosas was obliged 
to abdicate the Government which he had held (with 
one short interval) since 1828. He subsequently 
came to England, where he has resided ever since. 

In October General Urquisa opened the navigation 
of the river Parana to foreign vessels of more than 
120 tons; but in the autumn Urquisa, having left 
the city of Buenos Ayres to return to Corrientes, the 
province of Buenos Ayres rose and deposed him, ex- 
pelling the troops which he left there. Since that 
time the old struggle for party power has continued, 
and the revolutions have been frequent ; but the 
influx of foreigners has increased, and with them an 
increased development of the natural resources of the 
countries bordering on the River Plate. 



206 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 



PART III. 

[1853 to 1859 inclusive.] 



On February loth, 1853, Parliament reassembled 
after the Christmas recess, and everybody was anxious 
to learn what measures would be proposed by the new 
Government to carry out the programme announced 
by Lord Aberdeen on taking office, namely, Free- 
trade, Education, and Law Reform, and the correction 
of defects in Parliamentary Representation, the whole 
to be in a f Conservatively-Liberal ' spirit. In the 
House of Lords the only announcement was that of 
the Chancellor, that on the following Monday he 
would state the intentions of Government on Law 
Reform ; and Lord Aberdeen, in answer to the 
enquiry, refused to state to the House what measures 
would be brought forward in the House of Commons ; 
although at the very time Lord John Russell, as the 
organ of the Government, was stating in his place 
that they should propose the cession of the Clergy 
Reserves Canada, the removal of Jewish Disabili- 
ties, Law Reform, and a measure on Education ; the 
Budget to be put off till after Easter, and Parlia- 
mentary Reform, till next Session. 

On the 11th, the Chancellor, in performance of 
his xDromise, presented a Bill for the Registration of 
Deeds, and announced one for regulating charities. 



207 

No further Law Keforin proposed for this session, 
but steps to be taken for a consolidation of the whole 
Statute Law. On the 22nd, Lord Clarendon received 
the seals of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
which were resigned by Lord John Russell, who 
continued to lead the House of Commons without 
holding office. On the 24th, Lord John Russell in- 
troduced a Bill for the removal of Jewish Disabilities 
by 234 against 205. The second reading (March 
25th) was carried by 263 against 212; but in the 
House of Lords it met with a different fate, for the 
second reading there, although moved by the Prime 
Minister himself, was negatived by 164 against 115. 
The next of the Government measures — the Canada 
Clergy Reserve Bill — was carried, on the second read- 
ing in the House of Commons, by 275 against 192, 
and on the third reading by 288 against 208 ; and 
in the House of Lords no division was taken against 
the principle, Lord Derby consenting to it, in order 
to move amendments in Committee ; but his motion 
there, to retain power over the money already in- 
vested in British funds, was, after a long debate, 
negatived by 117 against 77. This was considered a 
great triumph for the Government. It left the pro- 
vision for the clergy in Canada entirely at the dis- 
cretion of the Colonial Parliament. Many persons 
considered that the expectation of this result was 
the real cause of Lord Derby's resignation, rather 
than his defeat on his Budget in December. The 
Chancellor of the Exchequer (Gladstone) opened his 
Budget in April, continuing and extending the In- 
come Tax, while he repealed some smaller taxes. He 
also proposed to create a two-and-a-half stock into 



208 MEMORANDA OF MY" LIFE. 

which, he hoped by degrees to merge the higher stocks, 
the Three per Cents, having been for some time near 
par, and at one moment (in the last autumn) above it. 
These measures they carried through the House of 
Commons by considerable majorities, and though 
they were beaten on some minor questions the 
Government now seemed firmly seated ; but a storm 
was gathering abroad, which within two years shat- 
tered them to pieces. 

A curious episode occurred in the House of Com- 
mons in the beginning of June. Lord John Russell, 
in opposing Mr. Moore's motion for enquiry into the 
revenues of the Irish Church, stated his change of 
opinion as to ' appropriating ' any part of them to 
educational purposes, or any other. In consequence 
of this statement three Irish members (Keogh, Sad- 
leir, and Monsall), holding office under Government, 
tendered their resignations, but two days afterwards 
withdrew them, and it was rumoured that Lord 
John Russell was to make them an amende hono- 
rable in the House ; instead of which, in answer to 
Mr. Moore, Lord John Russell maintained his words 
respecting the Roman Catholics, and said that he 
did not know which of his colleagues differed from 
him in opinion, and so the matter ended. 

On the 3rd of June, Sir C. Wood opened the 
scheme of Government for the new charter to the 
East India Company in a speech of five hours. A 
portion of the directors in future to be named by 
Government ; appointments to Addiscombe and 
Haylesbury to be thrown open to competition. On 
the 30th, the East Indian Bill was read a second 
time; the amendment of Lord Stanley, to defer 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 209 

legislation, being negatived by 822 against 140. It 
passed through the Lords without a division. Mr. 
Spooner's (annual) motion to withdraw the grant 
from Maynooth was negatived by 190 against 160. 
Mr. T. Chambers's Bill for Inspecting Nunneries was 
carried by 138 against 115 ; Mr. Berkeley's for vote 
by Ballot (leave to introduce bill), negatived by 232 
against 172. 

In July, Government introduced a Merchant Ship- 
ping Bill; the twelfth clause, respecting the pro- 
visions of the Navigation Act for manning British 
vessels, was carried by 142 against 36; and in the 
House of Lords the division on the same clause was 
18 against 5. 

In the House of Lords, the Select Committee on the 
East India Company's Charter met on March 1st, and 
continued its sittings (two days in the week) till 
August. In April, Lord Winchelsea's motion for a 
Committee to enquire into Maynooth was met by 
Government for an enquiry by Royal Commission, and 
this proposal was carried by 105 against 53. 

On the 26th, Lord Wrottesley, in a speech of con- 
siderable length, called the attention of Government 
to a combined system of meteorological observations 
for the improvement of navigation. In May, Lord 
Malmesbury moved for a select committee to enquire 
into Government schemes for duties on succession to 
real property : negatived by 139 against 126. In 
June, Lord Lyndhurst's Bill for amending the Oaths 
of Supremacy and Abjuration (which would have 
admitted Jews to Parliament), on motion for going 
into Committee, was negatived by 84 against 69. On 
the 13th, Lord Ellenborough, in moving for papers, 

p 



210 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

discussed at length the proposed measure of Govern- 
ment for future government of India, which brought 
on a debate "which lasted till nine o'clock. 

On the 2nd August, a Bill for Entry of Seamen into 
the ISTavy, founded on the recommendations of the 
' Manning Committee,' was read a second time, and 
went through subsequent stages without any serious 
opposition. On the 9th, the second reading of three 
bills, relating to the law of landlord and tenant in 
Ireland, was moved, and strongly opposed by Irish 
peers, and Government ultimately withdrew them. 
During this spring the differences between Eussia 
and Turkey, which first arose from a quarrel between 
the priests of the Latin and Greek Churches at 
Jerusalem, were fast ripening into a war, which 
ultimately involved a large portion of Europe. 

On May 19th, the Eussian Prince Menchikoff, who 
had been sent on a special missioii to Constantinople, 
with the demands of the Emperor, quitted it, his 
terms having been rejected by the Sultan, and a 
Eussian ultimatum on July 1st met with the same 
fate. The Eussian army was then ordered to ad- 
vance. On the 18th, Lord Clarendon stated in the 
House of Lords, that ■■ there were still hopes of peace, 
but that a few days must decide one way or the 
other. 5 The joint negotiations of England, France, 
Austria, and Prussia, however, delayed the crisis a 
short time longer. They agreed to certain terms of 
accommodation, which were sent to Eussia in a note 
on September 3rd, and accepted by that Power ; but 
on being forwarded to Turkey, modifications or ex- 
planations were demanded by that Power, which were 
agreed to by the four Powers as consonant with the 
meaning of their note ; and as such recommended 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 211 

by them to be accepted by Eussia. These modifica- 
tions Russia refused. Turkey then declared war ; 
and Eussia upon this broke off all further negotia- 
tions with the four Powers relative to Turkey. It is 
not my intention to enter into all the details of this 
war, but this sketch of its origin was necessary to 
understand the allusions to it during the next two 
following years. 

My personal share in the parliamentary business 
of this session consisted of enquiring (February 15th) 
as to the intentions of Government on the consolida- 
tion of the Mercantile Marine Law ; attending the 
Select Committee on the Law Eeform Bills, during 
February and March — seven sittings; the Select 
Committee on the India Company's Charter, between 
March 1st and August 4th — twenty-three sittings. 
On March 14th, I moved for papers relating to the 
establishment of Seamen's Schools, and commented 
on the proposed consolidation of Mercantile Marine 
Law. Lord Stanley of Alderley, Vice-President of the 
Board of Trade, answered me very civilly, but not 
very distinctly, as to the intentions of the present 
Government. 

April 8th, I spoke in support of the Petition of 
the seamen of Hartlepool, presented by Lord Ellen- 
borough against the repeal of the manning clauses. 
On the 12th, I wrote to Mr. Spencer Walpole, press- 
ing on Opposition in the House of Commons the re- 
peal of these clauses. 26th, I spoke on Lord Wrottes- 
ley's motion on system of Meteorological Observations, 
stating the views in favour of such an object held 
by the Admiralty and Board of Trade under Lord 
Derby's Ministry. 29th, I spoke a few words on 

P 2 



212 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Jewish. Disabilities Bill. June 23rd, presented a pe- 
tition of the Eev. W. Randolph, Canon of St. Paul's, 
against 3rd clause of Copyhold Bill. July 7th, I 
moved second reading of Sir Thomas Wilson's Estate 
Bill, to enable him to grant building leases on his 
own land, on the manor of Hampstead ; it was re- 
jected by 28 votes against 21, on the mistaken idea 
chiefly that it would give Sir Thomas a power to 
enclose Hampstead Heath. 18th, on Transporta- 
tion Bill, spoke in favour of Falkland Islands as 
penal settlements, and the advantage of constructing 
works there for the protection and refitting of ship- 
ping. 19th, sat on Oxford, Birmingham, and Wol- 
verhampton Railway Bill, and at 4 p.m. adjourned to 
the 21st, to give parties time to consider terms of 
agreement suggested by committee. On the 21st, 
the agents of the two Companies, after some 
discussion, agreed to terms of clauses, opening the 
Oxford station to the Oxford and Worcester Com- 
pany, on which the committee unanimously resolved 
to report in favour of the Bill. 

This had been long the battlefield of the broad 
and narrow gauges. 

August 2nd, the second reading of c Entry of Sea- 
men ' into the Navy Bill, was moved by Lord Gran- 
ville. I spoke in favour of the principle of the bill ; 
asking explanation of clause 7, as to proclamations 
for calling out seamen by classes. On the 4th, this 
bill went through committee after some discussion, in 
which I took part, but no amendments were moved. 

On this day, I sate (in the absence of Lord Stan- 
ley of Alderley) with the Duke of Argwle and Lord 
Breadalbane as a Commissioner to give the Eoyal 



1853 TO 1859. 213 

assent to bills passed by the two Houses. 12th, 
Merchant Shipping Bill came on for committee. I 
spoke on the bill generally, omissions as well as con- 
tents, but specially against clause 31, which repealed 
the provisions of the Navigation Act respecting the 
manning of British ships ; and in committee divided 
against the clause, which Government carried by 18 
against 5, the minority consisting of Lords Hard- 
wicke, Waldegrave, Ellenborough, Redesdale, and 
myself. Thus was swept away the last provision for 
maintaining our supply of native seamen ; for now 
that ' British vessels ' could be built in foreign ports 
and manned with foreign hands, the enactments re- 
serving the coasting trade had become useless for 
this purpose, and were repealed the next year, with- 
out a voice being raised in their favour. On the 
15th, I spoke in favour of Lord Hardwicke's amend- 
ment to exclude Liverpool from the 14th clause of the 
Pilotage Bill; the amendment was negatived by 14 
against 6. On the 18th, I left London for Kidbrooke. 

We passed the first week of this year a.t Brighton. 
On January 10th, I went to pay a visit to Lord 
Hardwicke at Wimpole. Your mother was too un- 
well to accompany me, and therefore I stayed onfy 
two nights. On one of the evenings, there were private 
theatricals performed by members of the family. 

At Easter we went to Kidbrooke for ten days. On 
April 12th, I received a note from my old acquaint- 
ance, Capt. Francis Cotton, enquiring whether I should 
like to be proposed for the Honorary Degree of D.C.L. 
of the University of Oxford, at the approaching in- 
stallation of Lord Derby as Chancellor of the Uni- 
versity. 



214 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

The question was asked at the desire of his brother, 
the Yice-Chancellor ; and my reply was in the affirma- 
tive. On May 17th, I received an official announce- 
ment from the Yice-Chancellor, that I was to be 
presented in the theatre for the Honorary Degree of 
D.C.L. at the installation of the Chancellor. On 
June 6th, I went down to Oxford, having taken 
rooms at the Star. The city was crowded with visitors, 
and the weather being fine, the scene was very gay. 
On the 7th, the procession mustered at 10 o'clock 
at Worcester, of which College the Yice-Chancellor 
was Provost, and proceeded thence, with the Chan- 
cellor at its head, to the Sheldonian theatre, where 
the degrees were conferred and the Installation 
Odes recited. As I am writing for a Ch. Ch. man, 
who has seen a similar ceremony, I need not enter 
into the details of the proceeding or describe the 
vociferous manner in which the under-graduates 
showed their approbation or disapprobation of per- 
sons or things. The proceedings lasted till half-past 
1 o'clock. The Yice-Chancellor entertained Lord 
Derby and the principal guests and authorities of 
the University at dinner in the hall of Worcester 
College, On the 8th, there was a great dinner in 
Ch. Ch. Hall, and on the 9th, more honorary degrees 
were conferred in the theatre. On this occasion the 
procession assembled in the Ratcliffe Library, the 
distance from Worcester being so great, and the 
weather oppressively hot. 

The degrees this day were conferred upon Mr. In- 
gersol, the Minister from the United States, and 
several men of distinction in literature or science. 
On the former day they were chiefly members of Lord 



1853 TO 1859. 215 

Derby's Cabinet, or others of political celebrity. The 
Master of Pembroke gave the dinner to-day to the 
Chancellor, who is ex officio visitor of that Col- 
lege. Lord Derby, on each occasion, made very 
excellent speeches. I was invited to all of these 
dinners, and spent the mornings in visiting the 
Colleges and other bnildings most worthy of atten- 
tion ; in these walks I was joined by my old school- 
fellow, Lord Dynevor. On the 10th I returned to 
London. On May 30th we went to Winkneld to view 
the tomb of your grandmother Ellenborough, in the 
churchyard of that village, and the Yicar, Mr. Elliot, 
obligingly promised to superintend the repairs which 
it required. On the evening of June 10th we went 
to a party at the Duchess of Sutherland's, at which 
the Queen was present, as also the Duke of Genoa, 
next brother to the Xing of Sardinia. On the 20th 
we attended the wedding of Emily Browne, Lord 
Kilmaine's daughter, to Lord Lurgan. As the time 
was now approaching when we must think of sending 
you to school, we began to look at such establishments. 
On June 29th we went down to Eton, accompanied 
by Fred. Ranisden, and at the Windsor station, Henry 
J. Ramsden (then at Eton) met us. We walked over 
the schools, play-fields, &c, and saw the boys' rooms 
in three of the tutor's houses ; and had a conversation 
with Mr. Durnford about Eton and preparatory 
schools for it. On July 9th we visited Mr. Tarver's 
private school at Sunning Hill, and on returning to 
town we passed through the Camp at Chobham, and 
saw the troops returning from exercise, and walked 
among the tents of the 42nd Regiment. In the same 
month, being on a visit at Hatfield, we went over to 



216 MEMOBANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the Rectory to see Mr. Faithful's school, and had a 
long conversation with him. We also visited a school 
on Wimbledon Common. In the meantime, as we 
thought you now too old to be under the care of a 
governess, we set about enquiring for a tutor till you 
should go to school, which was not to be till you had 
completed your twelfth year, and after some difficulty 
selected Mr. Horneman for the post. Miss Tainsh 
accordingly left us on the day before we went down 
to Kidbrooke, and Mr. Horneman joined us there. 
I went, alone, to Kidbrooke, on July 12th, to see the 
damage done by the hailstorm on the night of the 7th, 
which, though it only lasted about five minutes, had 
broken nearly the whole of the glass in the hot- 
houses and kitchen garden. This storm crossed the 
counties of Sussex and Kent, in a direction from S.W. 
to N.E.j striking the coast near Worthing, and 
leaving it at Rochester ; its breadth was only of some 
hundred yards, but the injury to crops, glass, and 
even live stock, in its track, was enormous ; the dam- 
age in Sussex alone was estimated at more than 
30,0002. We had wished to let Kidbrooke, but not 
finding a tenant, we determined to go there ourselves, 
and stayed there from August 18th to November 1st, 
when we went over to Brighton for a week, and on 
the 16th removed to London for the winter. 

During the autumn we had visits from the Dallases, 
Frederick Eamsden, and Charles Abbot. 

Mr. Horneman proving, though a man of learning 
and information, not to be suited for the companion 
and instructor in boyish games of a young gentleman 
between eleven and twelve years old, we parted with 
him on going to Brighton, and in London engaged 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 217 

Mr. Glenmon to give lessons fonr times a week. 
While at Kidbrooke we looked at Mr. Goldney's 
school near Tmibridge Wells. On September 15th 
we dined at Buckhurst to meet the Crown Prince of 
Wurteinbtrrg. 

On October 8th there was a great flood in the 
Valley of the Medway : both the south and west 
lawns at Kidbrooke were under water ; and the water 
rose eight inches against the library (west) front of 
the house, running off by the stable-yard, and some 
getting into the cellars. On the 27th there was a 
violent storm, with thunder and lightning and tor- 
rents of rain, which again flooded both lawns ; but 
it did not last so long as the former one. 

On September 18th an Order in Council was issued 
to enforce the Cholera Act throughout England, 315 
persons having died of that disease in Newcastle 
since August 31st, and above 360 died in London 
during August and September ; but before the close 
of October the disease nearly subsided. 

The price of wheat rose so much this year that T 
felt obliged to raise the wages of my workmen one 
shilling a week in July, and the same again in 
December, making them up to 12s. a week; flour 
being at the latter date 20d. per gallon. 

Your mother was very unwell during the early part 
of this year, and suffered again in October. On 
November 25th she had a very providential escape 
from being burnt to death. Some scent which she 
was burning bubbled over, and the liquid fire fell on 
the table, providentially not on her clothes. She, 
with great presence of mind, poured water over the 



218 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

flaming toilette cover, and extinguished the fire with- 
out any serious danger. 

The dull month of December was enlivened by an 
announcement in the leading article in the Times that 
Lord Palmerston had resigned, the cause assigned be- 
ing the proposed Reform. Bill, a cause which no one 
believed likely to produce such an effect. The 18th 
and 19th passed over without throwing any light on 
the subject. On the 19th the same oracle informed 
the public that Lord John Russell had declined the 
Home Office, and that it was offered to Sir George 
Grey. So things remained for another week ; and 
then, nobody else being apparently willing to take the 
office, on the 26th Lord Palmerston resumed it, and 
so things appeared to be as they were. Those who 
professed to see behind the scenes said that the 
difficulty to find a person to fill the office of Home 
Secretary arose from the demand of the Peelite 
section of the Cabinet to have an additional member 
of their party placed in the Cabinet if that office was 
given to a Whig. 

In this month a treaty was signed between Great 
Britain, Prance, Prussia, and Austria, fixing the terms 
on which peace ought to be made between Russia and 
Turkey. 

Among the miscellaneous events of this year were, 
the marriage of the Emperor of the French to a 
private lady, Donna Eugenie de Montijo ; The fusion 
of the two branches of the Prench Bourbons, the 
Due de Nemours visiting the Comte de Chambord at 
Prisdorf ; The death of the Queen of Portugal, Maria 
da Gloria, in childbirth ; An outbreak at Milan, sup- 
pressed by the Austrians ; The birth of Prince Leo- 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 219 

pold ; The Queen and Prince Albert both attacked 
(slightly) with measles ; The termination of the war 
with Aya by the proclamation of the Governor- 
General of India that hostilities have ceased, though 
no treaty has been agreed to. England retains Pegu. 
In China the rebels, called Taepings, took in May 
the city of ISTgan-kiang-foo, and descending the Yang- 
tse-kiang made themselves masters of Nankin, Ching- 
kiang-foo, and Qwa-choo, killing all the Tartars who 
fell into their hands. Captain McClure completes 
the north-west passage from Behrings Straits to the 
Atlantic, leaving the ship frozen up in Baring's 
Island. 

The parliamentary session of 1854 was opened on 
January 31st by the Queen in person. The principal 
topics of the Royal speech were the war between 
Russia and Turkey ; the augmentation of our naval 
and military forces to support our representations; 
the opening of the Coasting trade ; Reform of Univer- 
sities ; Legal Reforms ; Law of Settlement ; Reform 
of Parliament ; and more effectual measures against 
Bribery and Corrupt Practices at Elections. The 
address was moved by the young Earl of Carnarvon 
in a very good speech, and seconded by Lord Ducie. 
The debate lasted till past midnight, but no amend- 
ment was moved. The discussion turned chiefly on 
the conduct of the Ministers in the Turkish question, 
the proposed reform of Parliament, and the late 
attacks in the newspapers on Prince Albert. His 
right to advise the Queen in matters of State was 
maintained on both sides of the House. Any improper 
interference on his part was denied. No amendment 
to the address was moved. 



220 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

On February 6th, Lord Clarendon, in reply to a 
question, stated that the Eussian Minister, Baron 
Brunnow, had last Saturday evening officially an- 
nounced the termination of his mission, and that the 
British and French Ministers at Petersburg would 
consequently be also withdrawn. 

On the 10th, Ministers brought into the House of 
Commons their bill for preventing Bribery and Cor- 
ruption at Elections, and for amending the Law of 
Settlement and Removal of the Poor. On the 13th, 
Lord John Eussell introduced his new Reform Bill. 
It proposed to disfranchise entirely nineteen boroughs 
in England and Wales, having less than 5,000 inhabit- 
ants and 300 electors each, and to take one member 
from each of thirty-three boroughs having less than 
500 electors and 10,000 inhabitants each ; making a 
total reduction of sixty-two members, and, in lieu, 
to enfranchise or give additional members to thirty- 
eight counties and fourteen boroughs. On March 
3rd, the second reading of this bill was put off to 
April 2 7th ; and before that day arrived, Lord John 
postponed ^definitively the further proceeding with 
the bill. He is reported to have done so with tears 
in his eyes. At all events, it found small favour 
either with Radicals or Conservatives, and the whole 
subject slept for some years. 

The bill for amending the law of settlement was 
withdrawn at the same time. On the 16th, the 
Chancellor introduced his measure for reforming the 
Ecclesiastical Courts, transferring the jurisdiction 
6 in contentious matters ' to the Court of Chancery. 
On the 17th, Lord Eglinton moved for a select com- 
mittee on the working of the Irish National Education 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 221 

system, which, the Government granted. On the 
27th, Lord Ellenborough, in the House of Lords, 
asked questions as to onr naval preparations. Lord 
Aberdeen declined to give any answer, saying the 
House should place confidence in the Ministry, to 
which your uncle replied, that he could place no con- 
fidence in them as a War Ministry, though they 
might be very good political economists. On the 
same day, Mr. Chambers, in the House of Commons, 
moved for a select committee to enquire into the 
number, &c. of conventual and monastic institutions 
in the United Kingdom. He was opposed by Lord 
John Russell, to whom Mr. Spencer Walpole replied 
in a very good speech, and the motion was carried by 
186 against 119. 

On March 7th, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
opened his budget. The income-tax to be raised one 
half, but the addition for the whole year 1854-55, to 
be levied in October next, making the payment for 
this year double the present amount ; 1,750,000^. Ex- 
chequer bills to be issued to meet immediate defi- 
ciency ; a further increase of income-tax and indirect 
taxation hinted at if the war, now considered certain, 
should last beyond next autumn. On the 2 7th, Lord 
Aberdeen brought down a message from the Queen, 
' That negotiations with Eussia have terminated, and 
that Her Majesty feels bound to afford active assist- 
ance to the Sultan against unprovoked aggression.' 
That additional papers would be laid before Parlia- 
ment, and ' that Her Majesty relies with confidence 
on the zeal and devotion of Parliament, and upon the 
exertions of her brave and loyal subjects.' The 
message was ordered to be taken into consideration 



222 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

by the House on the 31st. On the 29th, a declara- 
tion of war against Russia was published in the 
' Gazette.' Previous to this declaration, a brigade of 
the Guards had sailed for Malta ; several other regi- 
ments were placed under orders for the East ; and a 
fleet, under the command of Sir Charles Napier, pro- 
ceeded to the Baltic, the first division of which 
reached Wingoe Sound (in Sweden) on the 15th. An 
augmentation had also been made in the corps of 
Artillery and Engineers. On the 31st, the address, 
in answer to the Queen's message, was moved by 
Lord Clarendon in a good speech. Lord Derby 
followed, commenting on secret correspondence ; and 
Lord Aberdeen made a miserable reply, chiefly 
attacking an article in the Press newspaper. 

The address was agreed to unanimously. The war 
was generally popular, as it appeared from some 
papers laid before Parliament, that some time ago the 
Emperor Nicholas had privately told our Ambassador 
at Petersburg (Sir Hamilton Seymour) that he con- 
sidered Turkey as in a state of approaching dissolu- 
tion, and proposed to England to -agree in a division 
of the ' sick man's ' estate. The gallant and success- 
ful opposition which the Turks had made to the first 
attempts of the Russians to cross the Danube had 
also raised them in popular estimation. 

A small party, however, were for peace at any price. 
On May 11th the Duke of Newcastle moved the first 
reading of a Bill for embodying the militia, and it 
was carried through all its stages on the following 
day. In the House of Commons, an increase of the 
malt tax was carried by 303 against 195 ; and the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer's plan for Exchequer 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 223 

bonds was preferred to Mr. T. Baring's by 290 
against 186. In some measures of less pressing 
consequence the Government was not so successful. 
The Scotch Educational Bill was negatived by 193 
against 184 votes on the second reading. Sir W. 
Clay's Bill for the abolition of church-rates was 
introduced by 129 against 62, being a Radical 
majority against Ministers ; the body of Conserva- 
tives not voting. On the 25th the Oaths of Allegiance 
and Supremacy Bill was negatived on the second 
reading by 251 against 247, a Conservative victory. 
The Bill for reforming the University of Oxford, 
which was founded on the report of the Eoyal Com- 
mission, was read a second time in the House of 
Commons in June. In the committee (22nd) two 
important divisions took place on the subject of 
taking religious tests ; that hitherto taken by the 
young men on matriculation was abolished by 257 
against 161, and that on taking a degree of B.A. by 
205 against 196. This Bill was read a second time 
in the House of Lords on July 6th, Lord Derby 
agreeing to that stage, but stating at length the 
amendments he should move in committee. In that 
stage many amendments were proposed, and five di- 
visions taken, in all of which Government had majori- 
ties. On June 13th the Chancellor had moved the 
second reading of his Marriage and Divorce Bill : 
by this the jurisdiction of the House of Lords was 
taken away and given to the new court formed by the 
Bill, which has worked very well. The new principle 
established was, that divorce could now be obtained 
in a court of law, whereas before it could only be ob- 
tained by Act of Parliament, dispensing with the law ; 



224 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

but as Parliament had ceased, practically, to refuse a 
divorce for adultery, except in cases of collusion, there 
was no real change. 

On the 29th Lord Derby moved to postpone further 
progress of the Legislative Council (Canada) Bill till 
the next session, but Government carried their motion 
for going into committee by 63 against 39. On 
July 13th the Merchant Shipping Consolidation Bill 
was read a second time, and passed through com- 
mittee on the 17th. Government consented (at last) 
to my amendment enabling an individual seaman to 
bring his case before naval courts. This Bill com- 
prised, among many other things (its clauses amounted 
to more than 500), nearly the whole of the Mercantile 
Marine Bill prepared by the Board of Trade in 1852, 
except the registration of seamen, which was aban- 
doned. 

On the 24th a message was brought down from 
the Queen for more money to carry on the war. 
Lord Aberdeen, in moving a reply, spoke coldly and 
doubtfully of the intentions of Government. Lords 
Pitzwilliam and Clanricarde demanded more ener- 
getic measures and language. Lord Clarendon, in 
reply, said that Government would not be satisfied 
with a return to the c statu quo,' but further measures 
must be taken to secure the real independence of 
Turkey. 

On August 12th Parliament was prorogued. Be- 
fore this took place Lord John Eussell had accepted 
the office of President of the Council; Lord Gran- 
ville, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; and 
Sir George Grey Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
which department was now separated from that of 



1853 TO 1859. 225 

War, which tlie Duke of Newcastle continued to 
hold. 

My attendance in the House of Lords this session 
was not so regular as hitherto, as on February 13th 
I was obliged to keep my sofa from the consequences 
of a broken shin, which had been too lightly treated, 
and I did not get rid of my doctors till April 18th. 
I spoke, however, on February 7th on Lord Hard- 
wicke's motion on the state of the navy, showing, in 
opposition to Lord Aberdeen, that the system of pro- 
motion of 1 840 was preferable to the present system ; 
on March 16th, on the second reading of the Bill for 
opening the coasting trade to foreigners, stating that 
after the repeal of the manning clauses, passed last 
session, I did not consider the measure worth op- 
posing. On May 26th I spoke shortly on the Bill 
for manning the navy, then in committee. From 
June 12 th to 16th I sat (as chairman) on a group of 
private Bills, one of which was the Edinburgh Im- 
provement. On the 27th I spoke in favour of the 
Finchley Road Estate Bill (Sir T. Wilson's), moved 
this year by Lord Clanricarde, and second reading- 
carried by 34 against 11 votes. On July 13th I 
spoke on the second reading of the Merchant Ship- 
ping Consolidation Bill. From the 14th to the 20th 
I sat on a railway committee (Duke of Buccleuch 
chairman), on which latter day we threw out the 
' Leeds Northern Railway ' Bill, thereby protecting 
the strict legal rights of the preference shareholders. 
On the 17th the Merchant Shipping Bill had passed 
through committee, and the Government accepted 
my amendment, as already stated. This Bill con- 
tained 524 clauses, and was divided into eleven 

Q 



226 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

separate chapters relating to different subjects, and 
being in fact so many separate Bills ; the first 
instance I recollect of such an arrangement. 

The Russian army succeeded, in the latter part of 
March, in forcing the passage of the Danube, and 
laid siege to Silestria. In consequence, an English 
and French division were moved from the neighbour- 
hood of Constantinople to Yarna. 

On April 22nd the steamers of the combined fleets 
attacked Odessa. The ( Terrible ' fired red-hot shot 
with great effect, being, I believe, the first instance 
of our ships of war using such projectile^. The 
Eussians had previously used shells fired from guns 
in their attack at Sinope, causing immense slaughter 
and destruction. 

In June the Eussians, having failed in several 
attempts to carry Silestria by assault, raised the 
siege, recrossed the Danube, and evacuated the 
Principalities. In the Baltic the French troops, sup- 
ported by a portion of the English fleet, landed on 
the island of Aland, and invested Bomarsund, which 
surrendered with its garrison of 2,000 men. The 
Allies afterwards evacuated it, destroying the works. 
The fortifications of Cronstadt were found to be too 
strong to be attacked with the forces of the allied 
Admirals ; and, with the exception of a foray made 
by the steam division along the shores of the Gulf of 
Bothnia, nothing further was done this year in the 
Baltic. 

In September the invasion of the Crimea was deter- 
mined upon. The allied army (English, French, and 
Turks) landed near Eupatoria on the 14th, carried 
the heights of the Alma on the 20th, and then mak- 



Ib59. 227 

ing* a flank march to Balaclava, approached Sebas- 
topol from that side. The Russians sank five ships 
of the line and two frigates to block up the mouth of 
the harbour : notwithstanding this, the Allies deter- 
mined to bombard the place by land and sea. The 
attack was made on October 18th, but produced no 
serious effect. On the 25th the Russians attacked 
the fortified posts near Balaclava occupied by the 
Turkish troops, and carried two of them, but were 
repulsed by the Highland Brigade and the heavy 
cavalry. Later in the day occurred the celebrated 
charge of the Light Brigade of cavalry, in which, after 
cutting through the Russian cavalry, and sabring 
the gunners at their field pieces, they were nearly 
destroyed in returning by the flanking fire through 
which they had to pass. The attitude of our heavy 
cavalry prevented any pursuit by the Russians. 

On November 5th was fought the sanguinary battle 
of Inkerman, in which the Russians, after nearly 
carrying the heights occupied by the British right, 
were repulsed with great slaughter. Here fell your 
cousin, Frederick Ramsden. 

On the 14th and 15th a most violent gale of wind 
raged in the Black Sea, blowing from south-west. 
Many vessels were lost with their crews, and a great 
amount of stores and clothing for the troops, who 
suffered very much in consequence during the ensuing 
winter. 

The Greeks having shown an intention of attacking 
Turkey from their side, 3,000 French troops were 
landed (in June) at the Pireeus. The King then de- 
clared his neutrality, and dismissed his Ministers, 
who had encouraged the invasion by armed bands. 

Q 2 



228 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

This year opened with severe snow-storms, which 
blocked up several of the railways and stopped all 
traffic, and much damage was done to shipping. 
After the first week of January the weather became 
mild, and there were no frosts during February, but 
late in the spring were some which hurt the shoots of 
young plants ; and when we went to Kidbrooke for a 
few days in the beginning of June it was so cold that 
we were glad to have fires during the whole day in 
the rooms which we occupied. 

On February 6th, we made another visit to Mr. 
Faithful's school, and decided on sending yoi* there 
after Easter. In the meantime you continued your 
lessons in Latin and Greek with Mr. Glennon ; and 
recommenced those in riding and French. You also 
read with me the Iliad in the translations of Pope 
and Cowper, comparing the passages. In March you 
sat for your picture (small-sized full-length) to Mr. 
Barraud ; and in April read Blackstone's chapter on 
the right of succession to the Throne. On May 4th, 
we took you down to Mr. Faithful's, and established 
you there. On April 1st, this year, I received my 
commission as a 6 Rear Admiral on the reserved list/ 
having held the rank of Captain for more than 
twenty-eight years ; and had it not been for the 
recent scheme of retirement, might have still re- 
mained a Captain for several more years. My old 
friend, Charles Hope, got his flag the same day ; un- 
fortunately he did not live long to enjoy it ; he died 
in the following August, while making a tour in 
France. On July 29th, we went to Eton to hear the^ 
speeches, it being Election Saturday. Afterwards, we 
visited two of the Dames' houses, Miss Yoves and 



1853 TO 1859. 229 

Miss Gulliver, and called on Mr. Birch, one of the 
assistant masters, with whom we had a long conver- 
sation ; and in October, I settled with him. to receive 
you at the next Easter, as an out-door pupil, till he 
should have a vacancy in his house, having arranged 
for your boarding, in the interval, at Miss Gulliver's. 
On August 2nd, General Sleigh agreed to rent Kid- 
brooke for three years, and desired to have immediate 
possession. We accordingly went down on the 4th 
to prepare the place for letting, as we had previously 
intended to pass the autumn there ; and on the 7th 
returned to London, stopping at Mr. Hustie's to sign 
the lease, which had been already done by General 
Sleigh. On the 9th, we went to see the c Crystal 
Palace ' at Sydenham, which had been opened by the 
Queen on June 10th. On the 14th (August), we set 
out on a little tour through England and North 
Wales. We went by rail through Oxford to Wor- 
cester, and thence by road to Malvern, where we 
stayed till the 19th, and then proceeded to Hereford, 
where we passed the following day (Sunday) ; thence 
through Shrewsbury by rail to Llangollen-road sta- 
tion, and on by road to Llangollen, the following day 
along Telford's fine road to Bangor, where we stayed 
three days at the Penrhyn Arms. 

During this halt, I went by rail to Holyhead to 
see the works in progress for the new Harbour. On 
the 26th, we left Bangor and proceeded by Carnarvon, 
the pass of Llanberris, Bedd-gelert, and Tremadoc to 
Tan-y-bwlch Inn, where we passed Sunday (28th), 
going to church at Maentrog. The next day, we 
proceeded by Harlech and Barmouth to Dolgclly, 
where we had intended to sleep, but being unable to 



230 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

procure rooms, we were obliged to go on to Bala. 
The following day we came to Corwen, and then 
turning our horses again towards Bangor, proceeded 
along Telford's road, as far as the iron bridge over 
the Corrwaj, then descending the Yale of that river 
reached the town of Conway, where we slept. On 
the 30th, we proceeded eastwards to Rhyl, where we 
had intended to make some stay, but finding very in- 
different accommodation (the principal inn was full), 
and every step outside the town knee-deep in sand, 
we were glad to get away on the 28th, and to return 
through the Yale of Clwyd to Llangollen. 

The next morning we went on to Chester, where 
we passed Sunday, and on the Monday took the rail 
for Leamington, passing through Wolverhampton, 
Birmingham, and Coventry. 

We passed a week at Leamington, visiting War- 
wick Castle, the ruins of Kenilworth, and the tomb 
of Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon. On Mon- 
day (September 11th), we went by rail on to Oxford, 
where we slept, and the following day returned to 
our home in London. Much sickness had prevailed 
there; the deaths from cholera for twelve weeks 
ending September 30th, having amounted to 9,707. 
Many other parts of England were also suffering 
from this scourge. While at Malvern we had heard 
of the death of our friend, Lord Beaumont ; at first 
attributed, but incorrectly, to this disease. On Sep- 
tember 21st, we went down to Brighton, and remained 
there till November 4th, at 62 Marine Parade. On 
October 3rd, the Duke of Newcastle enquired whether 
I was willing to be nominated one of the Commis- 
sioners of the Patriotic Pund, about to be established 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 231 

for receiving and managing the subscriptions to be 
raised for the widows and children of those who should 
perish in the war with Russia. I replied, assenting. 

On the 16th, I went over to the Quarter Sessions 
at Lewes, and took the oaths as a Flag Officer. On 
the 17th, I completed the sum of 5,000?. to be accu- 
mulated by annual payments of 200?. under my 
marriage settlements. 

On November 18th, we went to visit Lord Ebr- 
manton, at Somerley, his country-seat, near Ring- 
wood, on the borders of the New Forest. He has 
built here a gallery, 84 feet long by 30 wide, for his 
collection of pictures, which is very fine, and in 
which he takes great delight, generally adding some- 
thing to it every year. We were asked to stay a 
week, but on the 21st, I heard from Lord De la 
Warr, that Mr. Faithful had been taken very ill, and 
was not expected to live through the night. This, 
and the expected details of the loss of officers in the 
battle of the 5th, of which the telegraphic account 
had reached us on the 16th, determined us to return 
to London the next day, and several others of the 
party did the same. On our way from the Waterloo 
Station to Upper Brook Street, a gazette was offered 
us, and we found among the list of officers of the 
Coldstream Guards killed, the name of poor Frederick 
Ramsden. At our house, Henry Law was waiting to 
tell us the sad news, and he and your mother went to 
Portman Square to meet the Henry Ramsdens, who 
were to arrive from Yorkshire in the afternoon, 
and break to them the melancholy intelligence of the 
death of their eldest son. You arrived the next 
morning from Hatfield, Mr. Faithful having died on 



232 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the morning of the 21st. On the 29th, we took you 
back to Hatfield, and finding that Mrs. Faithful, with 
her daughter and son-in-law (Mr. Chittenden), in- 
tended to continue the school in some neighbouring 
locality (being obliged to vacate the Rectory), we 
agreed that, subject to future arrangements, you 
should continue at their school. 

On December 11th, you came home for the holi- 
days, bringing with you Frederic Wellesley, who slept 
at our house on his way to Paris. Parliament met 
on the 12th, being opened by the Queen in person. 
The principal objects of this winter session were to 
pass a bill for the enlistment of foreigners, and to 
authorise volunteering from the militia into the 
army. The second reading of the former bill was 
carried by 241 against 202, Ministers threatening 
to resign if beaten. A vote of thanks to the army 
and navy was proposed in the House of Lords on the 
15th, for their services in the Crimea. In this, the 
name of Bear-Admiral Montague Stopford, Cap- 
tain of the Fleet, was omitted. To this omission T 
objected, and showed precedents for its insertion, 
even where the Captain of the Fleet was not a Flag 
Officer (Sir Home Popham, for Copenhagen) ; that his 
position was equal to that of an Adjutant-General 
and Quartermaster- General in the army, who had 
been thanked at Waterloo, and that further by the 
wording of this vote, if his name should not be in- 
serted, he would be the only person in either service, 
who received no thanks at all. I spoke also in favour 
of some public monument to the slain. The Ministers 
seemed taken by surprise at the question of the Cap- 
tain of the Fleet, and the Duke of Newcastle pro- 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 2.33 

mised to give an answer on Monday. On that day, 
the names of Eear- Admiral Stopford and of the 
Adjutant-General (Estcourt) and Quartermaster- 
General (Airey) were added to the vote of thanks. 
Among the more miscellaneous events of this year, 
were the occupation by the French of New Caledonia 
and its dependencies in the Pacific as a penal colony. 
In March, accounts were received of Dr. Barth having 
reached Timbuctoo on September 27th, 1853. 

He states the population at about 20,000 persons, 
the market not so large as that of Kano, but the 
goods of superior value. Thus shrink the fabulous 
accounts of this great African city. Dr. Barth places 
the city in lat. 18°4' K and long. 1°45' west of 
Greenwich. 

On June 19th, the young King of Portugal at- 
tended a debate in the House of Lords, on Lord 
Lyndhurst's motion on foreign policy. A chair was 
placed for him in front of the steps to the throne, on 
the Chancellor's right hand. He afterwards moved 
into the Peers' gallery opposite to the seat from 
which Lord Lyndhurst was speaking. 

In October, the c Phoenix ' returned from the Arctic 
Eegions, bringing home Captain M'Clure, the suc- 
cessful discoverer of the north-west passage. In the 
same month, Dr. Rae, of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, arrived in England, bringing certain articles 
belonging to Sir John Franklin's expedition, which 
he purchased from the Esquimaux, who informed him 
that four winters ago, about thirty white men were 
seen travelling across the ice ; and afterwards their 
dead bodies were found near the mouth of the Great 
Fish River, having perished from cold and hunger. 



234 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

In November, accounts were received of the safe re- 
turn of the ' Enterprise,' Captain Collinson, to Port 
Clarence, Bherings Straits, after having advanced as 
far as long. 105° without finding any trace of Franklin. 

In August, the King of Saxony was killed by a 
fall from his horse. 

A military insurrection, headed by General O'Don- 
nell, broke out in Madrid to effect a change of 
Ministry. After some hesitation many of the prin- 
cipal towns in the eastern part of Spain declared 
for the insurgents. Espartero placed himself at the 
head of the Government at Saragossa. In August, 
Madrid having risen in insurrection, the Queen 
of Spain was obliged to nominate General Espar- 
tero as head of the Government, which he, after 
negotiation, accepted ; and formed a cabinet which 
included O'Donnell. The Duke of Parma was assas- 
sinated in March ; the murderer escaped. 

In June Colonel Dyneley was promoted to the 
rank of Major- General ; his eldest son, Edward, had 
become a second Captain in Eebruary by the aug- 
mentation of the Artillery. Henry Law's eldest son, 
Edward, entered the Navy in August as a Naval Cadet, 
on board H.M.S. ' Colossus.' In October, Sir Eobert 
Dallas sold his London house, 18 Henrietta Street. 

During the last week of June your mother was 
very unwell. 

Parliament met after the Christmas recess on 
January 23rd, 1855. In the House of Lords, Lord 
Ellenborough gave notice of a motion for papers on 
the conduct of the war, and Lord Grey on failure of 
the new War Department. In the House of Com- 
mons, Mr. Eoebuck, M.P. for Sheffield, moved for 



POLITICAL EYEXTS, 1853 TO 1859. 235 

a committee of enquiry into the conduct of the war. 
The siege of Sebastopol had lingered, or rather been 
suspended, since the battle of Inkerman, the weather 
having rendered the roads, from the port of Balaclava 
to the camp, almost impassable, and the besieging 
army being insufficient in numbers to carry on the 
approaches without overworking the men. The troops 
suffered dreadfully from sickness, which was aggra- 
vated by want of proper shelter. The men died by 
hundreds, and I heard from good authority that not 
less than 600 men who were sent from the Crimea to 
the Scutari Hospital died without leaving any means 
of identifying them, or even the corps to which they 
belonged. When landed at Scutari they were too ill 
to say who they were, and they had no uniform by 
which they could be traced. The prevailing disease 
was dysentery ; but that overwork was a principal 
cause was shown by the comparative healthiness of 
the Naval Brigade, who worked a portion of the 
batteries. I asked Sir J. Lushington, who com- 
manded the Brigade, how he accounted for the dif- 
ference between his men and the soldiers ; and he 
told me that several of his guns having been disabled 
by the Russian fire, there remained more men than 
were required to work the remainder, and these he 
employed in bringing up his stores and provisions 
from Balaclava (some miles distant) without inter- 
fering with the hours of rest due to those who fought 
the batteries ; while the soldier had to do all this, 
during the time he was nominally off duty. To this 
Lushington mainly attributed the healthy state of 
his brigade throughout the siege. These difficulties 
and sufferings were daily placed before the eyes of 



236 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the British, public by the correspondents of the news- 
papers, and they were contrasted with the better 
condition of the French soldier; though those on 
the spot believed that the only difference was, that 
the French knew better how to conceal their losses. 
At all events these accounts of the sufferings of our 
men brought much odium upon the Ministers, who 
were charged with being the cause of them through 
their incapacity. This feeling was increased by the 
resignation of Lord John Russell, which was an- 
nounced on the 25th in both Houses of Parliament, 
which at the request of Ministers adjourned at once 
till the next day. On that day (26th) Lord Aberdeen 
announced in the House of Lords, that Lord John 
had resigned because he had been dissatisfied with 
the conduct of the War Department, and would 
not oppose Roebuck's motion for enquiry. Lord 
John stated the same in the House of Commons. 
The debate commenced the same day, Sir George 
Grey and Sidney Herbert speaking in opposition to 
Roebuck, and Spencer Walpole in favour of his mo- 
tion. It was continued on the 29th (Monday), when 
upon division Mr. Roebuck's resolution was carried 
against the Government by an overwhelming ma- 
jority, 305 against 148. 

In this division 96 Whigs and Radicals voted 
for Roebuck's motion, 8 Conservatives against; it. 
Bright and Cobden, the leaders of the Peace party, 
did not vote. 

The next morning Lord Aberdeen went to the 
Queen at Windsor, and on the following day Her 
Majesty came to town and sent for Lord Derby, who, 
after an audience of an hour and a half, went to 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 237 

Lord Palmerston, and then returned to the Queen, 
and was supposed to be forming an Administration ; 
but on the following day Lord Derby resigned the 
task, and Her Majesty sent for Lord Lansdowne. 
Lord Derby said privately that he had failed from 
want of strength in the House of Commons. Those 
who professed to know the circumstances said that 
Lord Derby had offered to put Gladstone and Sidney 
Herbert into the Cabinet, as holding Palmerston's 
views, with which Lord Palmerston appeared satis- 
fied ; but next day declined taking office himself, on 
the ground that they would not join Lord Ellen- 
borough, who had been offered, and had accepted, the 
War department ; but Palmerston's change of views 
put an end to the plan. He was supposed to be 
already looking forward to his own elevation to the 
post of Prime Minister. Thursday (February 1st), 
Lord Aberdeen, in the House of Lords, made a 
funeral oration over his deceased Administration, and 
the Duke of Newcastle, at some length, and with 
some warmth, controverted the statement of Lord 
John Russell in the House of Commons, that he had 
insisted on being War Minister, or that he had re- 
jected Lord John Russell's proposed improvements in 
the War Office. The House then adjourned to the 
5th. On the 2nd Lord Lansdowne had interviews 
with Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, Lord John Russell, 
and Lord Palmerston, and then went to the Queen, 
and is supposed to have failed to construct a Cabinet. 
Lord Clarendon was then spoken of as sent for. The 
next day (the 3rd) the ' Globe ' stated that Lord Derby 
was again sent for, but this was not believed at the 
Carlton ; Lord John Russell was also mentioned as 



238 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

trying to form a Cabinet, but a late edition of the 
' Morning Post ' affirmed that Lord Palmerston had 
been sent for by the Queen. This proved to be true, 
but on the 5th, as he had not yet succeeded in com- 
pleting his Cabinet, the two houses again adjourned, 
and it was not till the 8th (Thursday) that Lord 
Granville announced to the House of Lords that Lord 
Palmerston had re-constructed the Government, tak- 
ing himself Lord Aberdeen's place, and LordPanmure 
replacing the Duke of Newcastle in the War Depart- 
ment ; Lord Granville himself to be leader of the 
House of Lords, in virtue of his office of Lord Presi- 
dent of the Council. Lords Derby and Lansdowne 
explained their shares in the respective negotiations. 
Thus fell Lord Aberdeen, and the first blow was 
given to the coalition of which he was the head, 
speedily to be followed by another of their own con- 
trivance. On the 16th Lord Panmure moved the 
first reading of a bill to authorise the enlistment of 
men above twenty-four years of age for short periods, 
and took this opportunity of explaining the various 
enquiries and reforms proposed to be made in our 
military establishments. On the 20th a very full 
meeting of Conservative Members of both Houses was 
held at Lord Eglinton's. Lord Derby explained the 
grounds on which he had conducted his late negotia- 
tion for making a Ministry, and his views of the 
condition of the new Ministry, and the line to be 
adopted by our party ; his speech was received with 
great applause. Mr. Kendal, M.P. for East Cornwall, 1 
stated to the meeting that if Lord Derby had included 
Gladstone in his Cabinet he would have lost the 
votes of ninety Conservative Members of the House j 






POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 239 

of Commons by his admission to it. On the 21st 
Lord Palmerston having decided not to resist the 
nomination of the Committee of enquiry into the 
state of the army before Sebastopol (carried on 
the 29th nit.), Mr. Gladstone,' Mr. Sidney Herbert, 
and Sir James Graham tendered the resignation 
of their offices, and were followed by Mr. Card- 
well. On the 23rd they explained their reasons, 
the two first saying that they fully understood on 
taking office that the Committee of enquiry would be 
put aside ; and Sir James Graham, that being ill at 
the time, he had not particularly thought of this 
point, being satisfied with the promise that Lord 
Aberdeen's foreign policy would be followed up. 
The following day Lord John Russell accepted the 
seals of the Foreign Office, and subsequently Sir 
Cornewall Lewis became Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
and Sir Charles Wood First Lord of the Admiralty. 
Thus, of the coalition Cabinet, the only two Members 
who could be in any way considered of Lord Aber- 
deen's party that remained were the Duke of Argyle, 
Privy Seal, and Lord Canning, Postmaster-General. 
On March 2nd Lord Clarendon announced the re- 
ceipt, by telegraph, of the news of the death of 
the Emperor Nicholas of Russia, at 12 p.m. the 
day before, caused by pulmonary apoplexy. This 
unexpected event caused a great sensation, as some 
doubts were entertained whether his eldest son, 
Alexander, would succeed quietly to the throne, and, 
in that event, what would be his policy regarding 
the war. Both these questions were solved in the 
most pacific sense. No competition appeared to 
dispute the succession of Alexander; and the new 



240 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Emperor showed a disposition to settle his disputes 
with the Allies (Sardinia having united her forces 
to those of England and France in the month of 
January) by means of negotiation. Conferences for 
peace were opened at Vienna on March 15th, and 
Lord John Eussell attended them as the represen- 
tative of Great Britain ; but they produced no result, 
hostilities were not suspended, and before the end of 
April they broke off on the third point, that which 
related to the Black Sea. During this period the 
Emperor and Empress of the French came to Eng- 
land, on a visit to the Queen. Prince Albert met 
them at Dover, and accompanied them to Windsor 
Castle (16th) ; they drove through London, from the 
Bricklayers' Arms Station to the Paddington Station, 
in the Queen's carriages ; crowds of people assembled 
to see them, and they were much cheered. 

On the following day there was a Eeview of the 
Cavalry and Artillery in Windsor Park, and the day 
after the Emperor was invested with the Order of the 
Garter. 

On the 19th, the Emperor and Empress went to 
Guildhall, and in the evening accompanied the Queen 
in State to the Opera in Covent Garden. On the 
20th, the Eoyal party went to the Crystal Palace, 
and in the evening the Queen had a concert at 
Buckingham Palace. Between the acts the Royalties 
went into the ball-room, and all the company passed 
before them, the Prince Consort mentioning the 
names to the Emperor as they came up. The fol- 
lowing morning the Emperor and Empress left 
Buckingham Palace on their return to France. A 
few days after their arrival in Paris (28th) an attempt 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1S53 TO 1859. 241 

was made to assassinate the Emperor by an Italian 
named Liverani: he fired a pistol at the Emperor 
while riding in the Champs Elysees. The shots 
missed, and the assassin was seized. In reply to an 
address from the Senate congratulating him on his 
escape, the Emperor made the remarkable answer 
that ' he had nothing to fear, as his destiny was not 
yet fulfilled.' 

On the 4th of April, our fleet of thirteen sail of the 
line, under the command of Rear- Admiral Richard 
Dundas, sailed from Spithead for the Baltic, having 
been preceded, on the 20th of March, by an advanced 
squadron of frigates. The only exploit performed on 
those seas during this summer was the bombardment 
of the arsenal of Sweaborg; the Russians having 
strengthened the works at Cronstadt during the 
winter so much that it was not deemed advisable to 
attack it. Active operations against Sebastopol re- 
commenced on the 9th of April; here also the 
Russians had constructed additional works since the 
former attack, which gave the allies much trouble ; 
but all the advanced works having been carried by 
the middle of June, it was determined to make a 
general assault on the 18th of June, the English 
attacking a work known as the c Redan,' and the 
French the Malakoff Eort. Both these attempts 
were repulsed with great loss to the assailants, that 
of the British being in killed, wounded, and missing 
83 officers and 1,352 men; the Trench, 150 officers 
and 3,218 men. On the 30th arrived the news ofthe 
death of Lord Raglan from cholera. He had been 
made a Field-Marshal after Inkerman; but the 
anxieties of his position, and the disappointment at 

R 



242 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the failure of the 18th (the anniversary of Waterloo, 
in the glories of which he had shared and lost his 
right arm), are supposed to have accelerated his 
death. He was succeeded in the command of the 
British army by General Simpson. Previous to this 
attack an expedition had been sent to Kertch, which 
succeeded, without loss, in capturing the place, 
which contained large stores of provisions ; and sub- 
sequently took Yenikale, when the Russians burnt 
their war steamers and thirty sail of merchant vessels. 
Our steamers subsequently entered the Sea of Azof. 

On the 14th of May, Lord Ellenborough moved an 
address to the Queen on the conduct of the war, 
which was met by Lord Panmure, who considered it 
as intended to censure the Government, and moved 
the previous question. The known eloquence of your 
uncle, and the great interest excited by the sufferings 
of our troops before Sebastopol, caused this debate to 
be looked forward to with much expectation; and 
when the day arrived the attendance of Peers was 
very large, and the galleries very crowded. An alarm 
had arisen among military men that your uncle in- 
tended to attack the conduct of Lord Eaglan, so 
much so that the Duke of Cambridge spoke to me 
about it the day before the debate ; and though I 
assured his Royal Highness there was no such in- 
tention, he seemed scarcely satisfied of it. Lord 
Ellenborough moved his address in a speech of 
much force, but did not sufficiently prove his general 
assertions of mismanagement by specific facts, as he 
might have done ; but the correspondence not being 
before Parliament, he declined to do so from his 
private knowledge. The debate lasted till half-past 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 243 

eleven, when on the division there were present in 
the Honse — for the motion, 71 ; against it, 116. 
Owing to some delay in calling for proxies, some of 
our people had left the House before they were 
called; and therefore we gave none, while the Go- 
vernment gave all theirs, which swelled their majority 
(present) of 44 to above 100 ; their net majority of 
proxies entered was 23, which would have made the 
real majority 63. This was a great and unexpected 
success for the Government, and they triumphed 
accordingly. On the next day (15th), Lord Albemarle 
moved resolutions for taking further measures for 
crippling the export trade of Russia, which had been 
carried on to a great extent through Prussian ports, 
thereby avoiding the blockade of the Russian ports. 
The motion was opposed by Government, and sup- 
ported by Lord Derby. Lord Ravensworth made a 
good speech in favour of it, and I spoke for maintaining 
the belligerent right of seizing enemy's property 
shipped on board neutral vessels. This drew down 
the wrath of Earls Grey and Fitzwilliam. On the 
division the resolutions were negatived by 47 
against 31. On the 16th, in the House of Commons, 
the Government suffered two defeats from the Radi- 
cals, on the Church Rate question and the Carlisle 
Canonries. 

On the 13th, the Queen distributed, on the Parade 
in front of the Horse Guards, ' the Crimean medals ' 
to about 500 men — officers, soldiers, and seamen — 
who had been present in battles there. The same 
day, in the House of Lords, Lord Panmure explained 
his scheme for remodelling the Ordnance Depart- 
ment. On the 22nd, in the House of Commons, 

R 2 



244 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Mr. Wise's motion for carrying out the recom- 
mendations of Committee of 1850, for reduction of 
diplomatic appointments, was carried (against Go- 
vernment) by 112 against 57 ! Mr. H. Berkeley's 
(annual) motion in favour of vote by Ballot was 
negatived by 218 against 166. 

On the 25th, Earl Grey moved for an address to 
the Queen, regretting that the Russian proposals at 
Vienna, on the third article, had not been taken into 
consideration ; he spoke for three hours and a half, 
and the debate continued till past midnight, but he 
found no supporter except Lord Lyttelton. In the 
Commons, an address moved by Mr. Disraeli was 
negatived by 319 against 219 votes, and debate on 
Sir F. Baring's and other amendments adjourned till 
after Whitsuntide. 

On June 7th, the University of Cambridge Reform 
Bill passed through committee in the House of Lords. 
On its introduction, Lord Lyndhurst had made a 
great speech panegyrising the existing system of 
English University education. On the llth, Lord 
Derby brought forward the case of the newly-created 
Irish Barony of Fermoy ; the three peerages required 
to be extinct, by the Act of Union, being made up 
by including the Earldom of Montr ath extinct in 
1802. The case was ultimately decided by the judges 
against the title, and Lord Eermoy had to wait for 
the extinction of another Irish peerage, which 
occurred within a year. On the 12th, the receiving 
the report of the Religious Worship Bill was moved 
by Lord Shaftesbury, and opposed by the Bishop of 
Oxford ; it was carried by a single vote — 31 against 
30. On the 15th, the bill was referred to a select 



1853 TO 1859. 245 

committee, on the motion of Lord Derby, by 47 
against 30. 

Mr. Roebuck's committee on the state of the army 
before Sebastopol, abont this time, made their report 
censuring Lord Aberdeen's Government. 

Lord John Russell resigned July 16th. 

Sir Edward Bulwer in consequence withdrew his 
motion. 

June 1 7th, Roebuck moved censure on Lord Aber- 
deen's Government; and General Peel moved previous 
question. Adjourned. 

June 18th, House of Commons debate terminated 
(after four nights), and previous adoption of Sir P. 
Baring's motion. 

June 26th, House of Lords, Lord Lyndhurst on 
conduct of Austria ; he had spoken on conduct of 
Prussia in March. 

Lord John Russell's retirement caused several 
changes of office among the Ministry. Sir William 
Molesworth became Secretary of State for the Colo- 
nies ; Sir Benjamin Hall, President of the Board of 
Public Works ; and Mr. W. Cowper, President of the 
Board of Health. By the resignation of Mr. Baines, 
the Hon. E. Bouverie became President of the Poor- 
law Board, and Mr. Lowe, Yice-President of the 
Board of Trade. 

No business of importance came on afterwards ; 
and on July 28th we left London for the summer. 
My more immediate share in the proceedings of this 
s-ssion consisted in speaking shortly on March 6th 
on Lord Berners' motion relative to contraband of 
war; 30th, in discussion on prospects of war; May 
15th, on Lord Albemarle's motion, as already men- 



246 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

tioned. On June 7th and 8th, I attended the select 
committee on bill for regulating standard weights 
and measures, which recommended ' Line measure ' 
as standard for scientific purposes, but subsidiary 
' End measure ' for commercial purposes. 

Mr. Whitford produced his machine for measuring 
to l-30,000th part of an inch. On the 14th, I at- 
tended the select committee on Agricultural Statis- 
tics, and on six subsequent days between that and 
July 23rd, when we separated. On June 15th and 
16th, I attended the standing order committee on 
the Oxford, Worcester, &c. Railway Bill, in which 
it was decided by 5 against 4 that the standing orders 
had not been complied with. 21st, I spoke on second 
reading of Lord Hardwicke's bill for Measurement of 
Merchant Steamers, recommending that the bill 
should be referred to a select committee, and urging 
on Government a more systematic plan for making 
experiments on qualities of steamers. 

My friend, Admiral Moorsom, was very anxious on 
this point, and afterwards prevailed on the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science to ap- 
point a committee, which made several reports to the 
Association on the subject of f steam-ship per- 
formances.' The second reading of Hardwicke's bill 
was negatived by 28 against 21. On July 5th, I 
spoke shortly on Lord Hardwicke's motion on State 
of Instruction for Naval Cadets, in support of his 
view of reviving the Naval College. On the 10th 
and 11th, I attended a select committee (of five) on 
Private Bills. On the 23rd, in committee on Mer- 
chant Shipping Amendment Bill, I moved a clause 
for holding surveys on vessels complained of as 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 247 

unseaworthy by seamen serving on board them. 
Government refused the clanse. On Jannary 10th, I 
received from the Under Secretary of the Home De- 
partment (Henry Fitzroy) an official enquiry whether 
I would act as Commissioner of ' Enquiry into the 
Laws affecting the Medical Profession.' After making 
some private enquiries into the nature of the enquiry, 
its necessity, and the names of the other commis- 
sioners, I replied officially, consenting to act ; but no 
commission was afterwards issued. 

On the 18th, I was elected a vice-president of the 
Eoyal Naval Benevolent Society. 

On February 19th, I attended a meeting of the 
commissioners of the Patriotic Fund, and two subse- 
quent ones in the months of April and May. Prince 
Albert' was in the chair on each occasion, and con- 
ducted the business with great regularity; at the 
latter meeting a report to the Queen was agreed to, 
stating the sum already received amounted to no less 
than 1,150,000L; it afterwards reached to above 
1,460,000L It was distributed in weekly payments 
to the widows and children of those who died, from 
whatever cause, while actively employed against the 
Eussians. At a later period, it was decided to build 
an asylum to hold 300 girls, daughters of soldiers 
and seamen who should die in the service of their 
country ; and endowments were granted to the Wel- 
lington College, the Eoyal Naval Female School, and 
other charitable societies, solely employed in the 
maintenance or education of widows and children of 
the two services, upon the condition of their receiving 
a certain number on the books of the fund. On 
March 9th, I went, in company with Mr. Scott Eus- 



248 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

sell, to see the great iron ship, 620 feet long (after- 
wards named the ' Great Eastern'), and the steam 
battery building in his yard at Millwall. The ' Great 
Eastern ' was designed by Brunei, the civil engineer. 
The object of building her of this immense size was for 
her to be employed in the trade to Australia, and she 
is considered to be capable of carrying sufficient coal 
for her outward and return voyage, thus not only 
saving the time lost in putting into various ports for 
the purpose of coaling, but also to save the great 
expense of forming depots for her supply of coals, 
which must in most cases have been sent from 
England in other ships, whereas the ' Great Eastern ' 
is her own depot. Her great size was always con- 
sidered by Brunei to enable her to have greater speed 
than anything of a smaller size, and also to make 
her easier in a seaway. As she would only touch 
at one port, while absent from England, the incon- 
venience from her greater draught of water (though 
it is not more than 30 ft.), and the increased space 
required for turning her would not be much felt. 
These advantages would be, however, almost entirely 
lost if she was employed in shorter voyages, where 
smaller vessels could equally carry their supply for 
the whole voyage, or if she had to touch frequently 
at ports to make up or discharge her cargo. 

Two events of a private nature occupied much of my 
time during the spring and summer of this year. 
The first related more particularly to yourself. On 
January 27th, we took you down to Hoddesdon, where 
Mrs. Faithful had established her school, upon quit- 
ting the Rectory at Hatfield. 

On March 10th, we went down to see you there, 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 249 

when Mr. Chittenden said he considered it right to 
let me know, that he did not think yon wonld ever 
be able to bear the life of a public school. This 
was a blow to all my plans for yonr future educa- 
tion, as I had always been most anxious that my 
son should go to a public school and thence to a 
university ; and these were the only points on which 
I had always insisted with your mother, whose 
anxiety for you would have preferred an education 
at home. 

The idea came upon me also unexpectedly, as none 
of the Faithfuls had hinted at it before. I could, 
therefore, only thank Mr. Chittenden, and say that 
I would consult Dr. Locock, who had attended you 
from your birth. To add to my annoyance, on our 
return home I found a letter from Mr. Birch, who 
had called during our absence to say, in consequence 
of Cecil Wellesley's leaving Eton to enter the navy 
he should have a vacancy for you, in his house, after 
Easter. This made it necessary to come to a speedy 
decision. I at once wrote to Locock, and answered 
Mr. Birch, thanking him for his offer, and requesting 
a few days to decide. Locock came on the 13th, 
examined thoroughly and questioned you when alone 
with him. He then expressed his opinion that you 
might safely go to Eton after Easter, and would be 
likely to do well there. On the 16th, Mr. Spencer 
Walpole, himself an Etonian, was so kind as to come 
at our request and examine you as to your classical 
acquirements and your fitness for Eton. He de- 
cidedly recommended the trial to be made ; and thus, 
fortified with the opinions of a great doctor and an 
ex-Secretary of State, I wrote to Mr. Birch accepting 



250 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the vacancy in his house, and found my mind much 
relieved by the decision. 

On April 2nd, we took you once more to Hoddes- 
don to take leave of the family and your schoolfellows. 
On the 4th, Mr. Browning, a sixth-form colleger? 
came to us to put you in the way of Eton habits, 
and remained with us till the 26th, the day before we 
all went down to Eton. Browning showed us through 
the college and playing fields; and we visited the 
room intended for you at Mr. Birch's. 

On the day that Browning came to us I was un- 
luckily seized with severe bleeding at the nose, 
which returned the following day, and slightly on 
the fourth day. It was only subdued by local ap- 
plication of iced vinegar and water, and draughts 
of diluted sulphuric acid four times a day ; and it 
was only on the seventh day that I was allowed to 
come down to the drawing-room. On April 30th, 
you were entered at Eton by writing your name in 
the book of the h^ad master (Dr. Ooodford), and 
were installed in your room at Mr. Birch's. 

On May 24th, it was announced to us by Mr. 
Birch, that you were placed in the upper division 
of the fourth form, and were to go into trials for the 
remove; which we leamt on June 18th you had 
taken. On July 30th you came home for the mid- 
summer holidays, having received a prize for French, 
and being captain of the second class in your division, 
thus justifying the opinions of those who judged you 
not unfit for a public school. As these pages are 
principally intended for your own reading, I need 
not detail your further satisfactory progress during 
the three years you passed at Eton, merely alluding 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 251 

to the principal occurrences at their proper dates. 
The other event was onr removal from our house in 
Upper Brook Street, in which we had comfortably 
settled ourselves, and which suited us extremely well, 
as to size and situation, close to the Park, though 
it had some minor inconveniences attached to it ; 
but the improvements which Lord Ward had now 
undertaken to make to his own house, by adding a 
picture gallery on the north side, would so seriously 
injure ours, by depriving our rooms which faced the 
south, of both light and air, that I at once decided 
that we must quit it, if Lord Ward carried out his 
plans ; and I told him, when first he mentioned it to 
me, that I feared this must be the result. Lord Ward 
first called on me on February 28th. The next day I 
requested Mr. Moseley, whom I was in the habit of 
employing as my surveyor, and who was surveyor of 
one of the districts of the metropolis, under the 
building acts, to obtain a sight of Lord Ward's 
plans, and to give me an opinion as to the legal 
powers he would possess of carrying them out, 
without the consent of the occupiers of the adjoining 
houses. Mr. Moseley called at Lord Ward's, and 
returned, telling me that he had seen Lord Ward 
himself, who was determined to carry out his plans 
at any cost, but seemed well disposed to take my 
house entirely off my hands, without any pecuniary 
loss to myself. As I found my only remedy would 
be by an action for damages, after the proposed 
building was erected, and the amount of damages to 
be settled by a jury, and as one of my next neighbours 
(Lord Delamere) was not disposed to litigate the 
question with Lord Ward, I finally agreed to his 



252 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

offer, and placed the details in the hands of my 
solicitor, Mr. Phelps. The next step was to look out 
for another house, and we examined many in various 
parts of the town but found nothing likely to suit us 
at our price (about 4,000 1.) till towards the end of 
May, when Mr. A. Douglas mentioned to us that Mr. 
Augustus Craven was desirous of parting with the 
lease of his house in Berkeley Square. We accordingly 
looked at it, and found the rooms on the ground and 
first floor larger and handsomer than we required, 
and the offices and sleeping rooms in the opposite 
extreme ; however, as the situation was central, the 
price within our means, and the time for vacating 
our house in Brook Street approaching, we resolved 
to make an offer for it, and finally on the 6th of July 
I purchased the lease (for twenty years from Mid- 
summer 1855), subject to a ground rent of 1001. per 
annum, for 4,1 70Z. On the 28th, we went down to 
Eton, for 'Election Saturday,' and I dined in the 
College Hall, as the guest of Dr. Goodford ; and on 
the 30th, we started for our tour to the north, 
merely passing through London, and proceeded by 
rail to Hatfield, and remained on a visit to the 
Salisburys till August 2nd. While there I received 
a letter from Mr. T. Moore, enclosing a copy of reso- 
lutions of the seamen of the river Tyne and other 
northern ports, to memorialise the Queen as to their 
grievances, and to carry up their petition in vast 
numbers, 7,000 expected. 

I replied, dissuading them from any display, which 
might wear an appearance of threatening, and an- 
nouncing that I would have nothing to do with any 
such proceeding. We reached the Knottingly station 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 253 

at 4 p.m. on the 2nd, and found Freddy Eamsden 
waiting to carry us to Ledstone; we stayed with 
them one night, and started the next day at 1 
p.m. for Scarborough, passing through York, and 
reached it at five o'clock, taking up our quarters at 
the Royal Hotel (Read's) . We stayed at Scarborough 
till the 20th, Dr. Locock having recommended Lady 
C. to try the air of this watering-place, but she 
did not find it suit, the weather being very hazy, 
and the air heavy; the Ramsdens, who came and 
stayed a fortnight in the same hotel, said it was 
not the usual climate. 

We slept at York on the 20th, and next da} r pro- 
ceeded to Edinburgh, being nearly nine hours on 
the rail. We put up at Barry's Hotel, in Queen 
Street, a large and comfortable house, but situation 
dull. 

We stayed at Edinburgh till the 26th, visiting 
the principal objects of curiosity in the city and its 
neighbourhood, though the cold and rainy weather 
took off much from the enjoyment of sight-seeing. 
On the 27th, we quitted Edinburgh in a thick 
Scotch mist, and took the rail for Perth, which we 
reached in three hours, and the evening being fair, 
drove over to Kinfauns, belonging to Lord Gray. 
The next morning after breakfast, we drove to Scone, 
Lord Mansfield's, where Lady Louisa Lascelles 
(his daughter), showed us the house and gardens. 
Having hired a carriage with a driver and pair of 
horses, to make a tour through the Perthshire High- 
lands, we left Perth the same day and halted at 
Dunkeld. On the following day we visited the house 
and grounds of Taymouth, and passing round the 



254 MEMORANDA OF MT LIFE. 

north, side of Loch Tay reached Killin, about a mile 
from the head of the lake. The next morning we 
proceeded by the pass of Glen Ogle to Loch Earn; 
skirting the north side of that lake we proceeded 
through Comrie to Crieff, where we slept ; the next 
morning we drove over to Drummond Castle, to see 
the gardens for which it is famous. Lady Wil- 
loughby d'Eresby pressed us to remain there for a 
day, but our arrangements would not permit of it, 
and returning to Crieff we proceeded on to Perth, 
and the following day, September 1st, returned to 
our former quarters at Edinburgh. From hence we 
paid a visit for two nights to Sir George Clark, at 
Penicuik House, and on the 6th finally quitted Edin- 
burgh, taking the rail to Carlisle, which we reached 
the same day sufficiently early to drive over to Rose 
Castle, the residence of the Bishops of Carlisle, and 
which was particularly interesting to your mother, 
as having been occupied by her grandfather, though, 
since the time of Bishop Law, the house has been 
much altered. On the 7th, we slept at Rugby, 
at an indifferent inn, and on the 8th we reached 
London, and drove to our new house in Berkeley 
Square. 

You will find a more detailed account of all tbat 
we saw during this tour, in a separate little volume. 

We remained in London till the end of the month, 
being occupied in removing our things from 33 Up- 
per Brook Street (which we finally gave over to Lord 
Ward on the 19th), and arranging them in our new 
bouse; and having deposited you, at the close of 
your holidays, at Eton, we went down to Brighton, 
where we remained at 27 Marine Parade, till 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 255 

November 30th, when we returned to London for the 
winter. 

During our stay at Brighton I went to Lewes to 
attend the Michaelmas Quarter Sessions, and to Sir 
Walter Stirling's, Burr's Wood, for the annual 
meeting of the Groonibridge Agricultural Society, 
when, as the president, Lord De la Warr, was un- 
able to attend, I had to distribute the prizes and 
take the chair at the dinner. I took this opportunity 
of visiting Kidbrooke both going and returning. On 
December 11th you came home for your Christmas 
holidays, during which you took lessons in riding, 
dancing, and drill, and attended a course of Fara- 
day's juvenile lectures at the Eoyal Institution, at 
which the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred were 
also present. 

The other family events of this year were the pro- 
motion, in January, of Charles Law to be Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the 5th West India Eegiment, and his 
marriage in June to Miss Fitzgerald Day, and his 
exchange to the 66th Eegiment ; Edward Dyneley's 
appointment to the Horse Artillery and his pro- 
ceeding to the Crimea, in May ; the death of Horace 
Law, Henry Law's second son, after three days' ill- 
ness, on July 1st, and of Henry To wry Law, the 
Eecorder's younger son, at Nice, in November. 
Douglas Dyneley was mortally wounded in the 
second assault of the Eedan, on September 8th, and 
died the following day ; and on November 8th we 
received the account of the death of my brother 
Philip's widow, of decline, at Teignmouth, where 
she had resided since 1847, always in delicate health. 
Her son Charles came up to London in December for 



256 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

a short time, and then returned to Teignmouth, 
intending to continue to reside there. 

The other events of a miscellaneous nature were, 
the great earthquakes at Broussa in March and April, 
which totally destroyed that city; the visit of the 
Queen to the Emperor of the French at Paris, in 
August ; the return of Dr. Kane's (United States) 
expedition in search of Franklin, having penetrated 
beyond the head of Baffin's Bay to 82° of latitude ; 
the drifting of the ' Eesolute,' which had been aban- 
doned in the ice in Barrow's Strait two years ago 
(contrary to the judgment of her captain, Kellet), 
into Davis's Strait, where she was picked up off Cape 
Morey by an American vessel, and carried into New 
York (she was afterwards presented to the British 
Government) ; the visit of the King of Sardinia, 
Yictor Emmanuel, to the Queen, when he was in- 
vested with the Order of the Garter. 

In November the office of Secretary of State for 
the Colonies became vacant by the death of Sir W. 
Molesworth, and Lord Palmerston offered the seals 
to Lord Stanley, who, after consulting his father, 
declined to quit his political party, and they were 
given to Mr. Labouchere. Some other changes of 
office took place at the same time, in consequence 
of Lord Canning, Postmaster-General, having been 
appointed to succeed Lord Dalhousie as Governor- 
General of India. 

I left the further account of the war at the date 
of the repulse of the assaults upon Sebastopol on 
June 18th, from which date up to the first week of 
September the approaches were carried on by sap, 
when, the French having brought theirs up to the 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 257 

counterscarps of the Malakoff, though ours, from 
the more rocky nature of the soil, were still near 200 
yards from the Eedan, it was determined, after a 
heavy bombardment for three days, to give another 
assault. The British were again to attack the Redan, 
the French the Malakoff, and two other breaches in 
the fortifications of the city. On September 8th the 
four columns advanced to the attack, and again three 
of them were driven back with heavy loss ; but the 
principal attack of the French against the Malakoff 
succeeded ; they carried the work, indeed, with 
trifling loss, the Russian guard in it having been 
surprised ; but the Russians fought desperately till 
the close of the day in the attempt to regain it : at 
last they left the French in possession of the well- 
disputed fort. After dark some of our men, who had 
crept into the ditch of the Redan to endeavour to 
bring off some of their wounded comrades, found 
that work deserted, and possession was taken of it ; 
but it was not considered prudent to advance beyond 
the gorge of the work till daylight should show the 
real state of affairs. When that broke, it was found 
that the Russians had evacuated the whole of the 
south side of Sebastopol, setting fire to their remain- 
ing ships and to the forts commanding the harbour, 
which blew up one after another during the course of 
the day. When the Allies entered the city they 
found nothing but shattered buildings, nearly every- 
thing having been destroyed by the previous bom- 
bardment. The Russians had for some days previous 
been observed carrying stores, &c. over to the north 
side by means of a bridge of boats across the harbour. 

s 



258 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

They still kept possession of the forts on the north 
side. 

It was in this assault that your cousin, Douglas 
Dyneley, fell. 1 He was first wounded in the head, 
and while on his return to the trenches received a 
second wound in his body which prevented his pro- 
ceeding farther. He crept into a hollow, where he 
remained several hours, till some of the men of his 
regiment, headed by a corporal of the name of 
Shield (afterwards made gatekeeper of Gloucester 
Gate, Eegent's Park), rushed out and brought him 
off. He was adjutant of his regiment, Welsh 
Fusiliers, and a commission as captain without pur- 
chase had been made out for him, but he did not live 
to receive it. 

An attack of the Eussians upon the French and 
Sardinian forces stationed at the Trekter Bridge, over 
the Tchernaya, had been repulsed in August, and no 
further hostilities of consequence took place in this 
quarter. 

The British loss in the assault was in all 2,447 
officers and men. The French loss was stated as high 
as 7,557 in their official account. 

After the occupation of Sebastopol by the Allies, a 
division of the French and British forces was sent to 
attack the forts of Kinburn, situated on a low point 
at the entrance of the Dnieper. It surrendered on 
October 11th, and its garrison of 1,500 men were 
made prisoners. It was in the attack on this place 
that floating batteries cased with iron, or, as the 
French termed it, ' blindees,' were first brought into 

* He had received the Sacrament, and had written a farewell letter to 
his father, the night before the assault. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 259 

action, and with complete success, the shot from the 
fort making no impression upon the vessel (a French 
one). 

Upon the surrender of Kinburn, the Russians 
destroyed their works at Oczakoff, on the opposite 
bank of the river. The Turkish force, under Omar 
Pacha, was about the same time transported into 
Asia, in hope of relieving Kars, which had been 
making a most gallant defence against the army of 
General Mouravief, and had repulsed an assault on 
September 29th, but was now in great want of pro- 
visions. Omar Pacha passed the river Ingour in 
November, but too late to save Kars, which surren- 
dered on the 27th of that month, after the garrison 
had endured the extremities of hunger. 

In December a treaty was concluded between 
Prance, England, and Sweden, providing against any 
cession of territory by Sweden to Russia. Early in 
January 1856, Russia sent to Vienna counter-propo- 
sitions of peace to those carried to Petersburgh by 
Count Yalentine Esterhazy, but Austria demanded a 
simple acceptance or refusal of her former proposals 
by the 18th inst. ; and upon that day a telegraphic 
message from Vienna announced their acceptance by 
Russia. It was decided that the conferences for ar- 
ranging the terms of peace should be held at Paris, 
and Lord Clarendon was selected to represent Eng- 
land at the congress. On February 26th the con- 
ference agreed to an armistice to last to March 31st, 
and the day previous to that date the treaty of peace 
was signed art Paris. 

In the month of January (1856), Sir James Parke, 
one of the Barons of the Exchequer and a lawyer of 

s 2 



260 MEMOEANDA OF MY LIFE. 

eminence, was created Baron Wensleydale by a pa- 
tent granting the peerage for his own life only, and 
no remainder whatever. The assnmed ground of this 
nnnsnal act of the royal prerogative was to add 
strength to the Honse of Lords, when sitting in its 
judicial capacity, without adding permanently to its 
members ; but as Baron Parke was a married man, 
now in his seventy-fourth year, without any issue 
male, it did not appear that there would have been 
any real difference, if an hereditary peerage had been 
granted to him in the usual manner; but that his 
creation might be considered as a feeler for future 
life peerages, without the same excuse as in the pre- 
sent instance. This would be a serious infringement 
of the independence of the House of Lords, as it 
would facilitate the creation of peers for the purpose 
of carrying any particular measures upon which a 
government might be bent, as they might be able to 
calculate upon the general support of peers so made ; 
while at present, the successors to the peerage might 
be found among their opponents, as has been the case 
with several of those created by the governments of 
Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne ; and the hope of 
having their life peerages converted into hereditary 
ones would keep those originally so created more 
under the control of the Minister. Such was a very 
general opinion of the possible consequences of this 
act of the prerogative, and at a meeting held at Lord 
Derby's, to which I was invited, to arrange the pro- 
ceedings for the session, the question was much 
discussed. 

Parliament was opened on January 31st by the 
Queen in person. Lord Gosford moved, and Lord 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 261 

Abingdon seconded, the address; no amendment was 
moved, but Lord Derby gave notice that the question 
of Patents for Peerages for Life would be raised that 
da j week. Accordingly, on February 7th, Lord 
Lyndhurst moved, that the patent of creation of 
peerage of Baron Parke should be referred to a 
Committee of Privileges. Lords St. Leonards, Camp- 
bell, Derby, and Brougham, spoke in favour of the 
motion, and it was opposed by Lords Granville, the 
Chancellor (Cranworth), Grey, and Duke of Argyle. 
The debate lasted till past 2 a.m., and upon the divi- 
sion the numbers for the motion were, present 79, 
proxies 59, total 138. Against it, present 53, proxies 
52, total 105. So the motion was carried by a ma- 
jority of 33 votes. On the next day, Lord Grey 
asked as to the next step proposed to be taken with 
regard to Lord Wensleydale's patent. Lords Camp- 
bell (Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench) and Derby 
suggested the expediency of Ministers stopping fur- 
ther proceedings, by granting a (second) patent in 
the usual form. 

No assent was given. On the 12th, the House 
met at two o'clock, as a Committee of Privilege on 
the Wensleydale Peerage ; and the Keeper of the Ee- 
cords in the Tower produced certain ancient patents 
of peerage, which he was directed to copy into modern 
orthography, and translate for the use of the Com- 
mittee by their next meeting, on the following Mon- 
day (18 th). Notice was ordered to be given to Lord 
Wensleydale that he might be heard by Council in 
support of his patent. The evidence, when printed, 
showed that patents of peerage for life had been 
granted from the reign of King Richard II. to that 



262 MEMOKAXDA OF MY LIFE. 

of Edward IY. ; but the only first creation of a Pee? 
for life by the king's sole authority was, that of 
Guiscard d J Angle (or d'Angouleme) by Eichard II. ; 
the others were either with the assent of Peers or the 
assent of Parliament. At the meeting of the Com- 
mittee on the 18th, more evidence was put in, and or- 
dered as before to be printed, and a letter was received 
by Lord Wensleydale declining to appear by counsel. 
On the 22nd, Lord Glenelg (who had held high office 
under the government of Lord Grey and Lord Mel- 
bourne, and was still earlier well known in Parlia- 
ment as Charles Grant, but who had rarely taken 
part in debate since the accession of Sir Robert Peel 
to power, in 1841) moved that the opinion of the 
Judges should be taken on Lord Wensleydale's pa- 
tent. This was opposed on the grounds that this 
was not a mere question of law, but of Parliamentary 
privilege ; and after debate the motion was negatived 
by a majority of 31 votes. Lord Lyndhurst then, in 
an excellent speech, moved his resolution against the 
validity of the patent ; Lord Grey moved his resolu- 
tions as an amendment, and at 1.20 a.m., the Com- 
mittee divided, when there appeared : present, for Lord 
Lyndhurst's motion 92 ; against it 57, giving a ma- 
jority of 35 votes against the validity of the patent. 
On the 25th (Monday), the report of the Committee 
of Privilege was received by the House, which, in the 
usual form on such occasions, ' Resolved and adjudged 
accordingly,' the Government through Lord Gran- 
ville objecting but not resisting further. Lord Derby 
then gave notice of moving for a select Committee to 
enquire into the exercise of the Appellant Jurisdic- 
tion of the House. Thus terminated a great consti- 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 263 

tutional struggle between the Crown (or rather its 
Ministers) and the Upper House of Parliament, in the 
defeat of the former, The large majorities on each 
division showed the feeling of the independent mem- 
bers of the House, and Government before the close 
of the session acknowledged their error by creating 
Lord Wensleydale a Peer with the usual remainders, 
under which patent he took his seat, with the gene- 
ral satisfaction of those who had opposed his former 
creation. The select Committee on the Appellate 
Jurisdiction reported in favour of certain improve- 
ments in the system, still retaining the jurisdiction 
itself; these recommendations were embodied in a 
bill which passed the Lords, but on going down to 
the Commons, a motion to refer it to a select Com- 
mittee was carried by 153 against 133. This being 
on July 10th, was equivalent to a rejection of the 
bill. Lord Palmerston both spoke and voted for its 
proceeding. On February 21st, Lord Panmure stated, 
in answer to a question of Lord Derby as to the re- 
spective duties and responsibilities of the Secretary 
of State for War and the Commander-in-Chief, that 
the Secretary of State is responsible to Parliament 
for the whole department, but the discipline and 
patronage of the army would remain, as heretofore, 
with the Commander-in-Chief. 

On March 4th Lord Stanhope moved an Address 
to the Queen for the formation of a Gallery of Por- 
traits of men eminent in British history. This was 
agreed to, and a sum of 5,000Z. was subsequently 
granted to form a commencement of the collection, 
and a house appropriated for their reception in Great 
George Street, Westminster. On March 11th a Bill 



264 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

for the collection of agricultural statistics was read 
a second time, but the prejudice against it was so 
strong that it was ultimately dropped. On April 21st 
the second reading of the Church Discipline Bill was 
moved by the Lord Chancellor; it was opposed by 
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the whole Bench 
of English Bishops ; while it was supported by the 
Irish Bishops, chiefly, as far as could be gathered 
from their speeches, on account of the clauses con- 
tained in it for the better registration and preser- 
vation of records, which were much required in 
Ireland, but are already sufficiently provided for in 
England. The House divided at a quarter of an hour 
past midnight, when the second reading was lost by 
33 against 41. On the 24th, Lord St. Germans 
moved the second reading of the ' Marriage Law Bill,' 
which would have enabled a man to marry the sister 
of his deceased wife ; it was rejected by 43 against 
24. I paired off against it. On the 28th Lord 
Clarendon laid upon the table of the House the 
Treaties of Peace agreed upon at Paris, and the next 
day (29th) Peace was publicly proclaimed. When 
the papers relating to the negotiations were printed, 
it appeared by them that on April 8th, a week after 
the signature of the Treaty of Peace, the French 
Plenipotentiary, Count Walewski, had stated to his 
colleagues that he wished them to conclude their 
work by a declaration which would constitute (in his 
opinion) a great advance in international law ; and 
that as at the Congress of Westphalia, liberty of 
conscience was asserted, and at the Congress of 
Vienna the Slave Trade was abolished, and the 
freedom of rivers established ; so at the Congress 



265 

of Paris the basis of an uniform Maritime Law in 
time of war as regards neutrals should be laid down. 
He then submitted to them four propositions : the 
first for abolishing the use of privateers ; the second, 
that the neutral flag covers the enemy's goods, the 
third, that neutral goods, with the exception of 
contraband of war, are not liable to capture under 
the enemy's flag ; the fourth, that blockades, in order 
to be legal, must be stringently enforced. The 
second and third of these propositions struck a blow 
at the principle that England had always maintained, 
even at the risk of war, yet our Plenipotentiaries at 
Paris had concurred in their adoption. On May 5th 
an Address to the Queen, congratulating her Majesty 
upon the restoration of Peace, was moved in the 
House of Lords by Lord Ellesmere, and seconded by 
Lord Glenelg; Lord Malmesbury objected to thfe 
wording of the Address, and Lord Derby spoke 
strongly against the adoption of the new Maritime 
Code without the previous assent of Parliament. 
The debate lasted till near midnight. I had pre- 
viously arranged to go down to Eton to see you on 
the following day (6th), which prevented my doing 
anything in London. On the 7th I called on your 
uncle Ellenborough, who I found laid up with the 
gout ; from him I went to Lord Derby, who desired 
me to open the debate on the maritime rights 
question, and to give notice, in general terms, of a 
motion for the 22nd. This I accordingly did the 
next day (Thursday, the 8th). The same day Lord 
Panmure moved the vote of thanks to the Army, 
Navy, and Militia, for their services during the war. 
I was occupied till the 18th in preparing my speech, 



266 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

and consulting authorities upon Maritime Law. On 
the 18th I met Lord Ellenborough at Lord Derby's, 
to settle the precise terms of the motion to be made, 
and afterwards saw Dr. Travers Twiss, a great 
civilian. 

On the 19th I received from Lord Derby the 
c Resolution,' as approved by Lords Lyndhurst and 
St. Leonards, and at five o'clock laid it on the table 
of the House. 

On the 22nd we dined at three o'clock, and your 
mother accompanied me to the House of Lords, and 
sat out the whole debate, which lasted to near mid- 
night. I opened the debate, and spoke for about 
forty-five minutes, concluding by moving three reso- 
lutions : First, That the most eminent jurists have 
agreed that the right of capturing an enemy's goods 
on board neutral vessels is inherent in all belligerent 
powers, and that the maintenance of this right is of 
essential importance, and its abandonment of serious 
injury to a power, whose main reliance is on her 
naval superiority. Second, That Great Britain, 
although occasionally waiving the exercise of this 
right by specific treaties, has universally refused to 
recognise the abandonment of this principle. Third, 
That this House deeply regrets that a principle so 
long and so strenuously maintained should, in the 
recent Conferences at Paris, have been suddenly 
abandoned, without the previous sanction or know- 
ledge of Parliament, by Plenipotentiaries assembled 
for the purpose of discussing the terms on which 
peace with Russia might be concluded, and the 
affairs of the East satisfactorily adjusted. 

Lord Clarendon opposed the resolutions, chiefly 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 267 

arguing upon the grievance that neutrals were sub- 
jected to, from being liable to detention and search 
(which still remains under the new provisions, as 
search may be made for contrabands of war) ; and 
that Great Britain had exempted so many nations by 
treaty, that it had become equal to a waiving of the 
strict right. The debate was continued by Lords Car- 
narvon, Harrowby, Hardwicke, Albemarle, and Duke 
of Arygle, Lords Derby, Grey, and Granville. In a 
few words I then replied, and the House divided ; for 
the Resolutions 102, against 156. So they were re- 
jected. We had expected the speeches of Lord Lynd- 
hurst and your uncle Ellenborough in support, but 
neither spoke. You will find among my papers a 
corrected copy of my speech, from Hansard's debates, 
with the exact words of the Resolutions moved. 

The smaller Powers of Europe gradually adopted 
the new code ; but the United States of North 
America refused to give up privateering, unless all 
merchant vessels should be declared free from visita- 
tion and search on the high seas. On the 23rd of 
June, the second reading of the Bill for repealing the 
Oath of Abjuration was moved by Lord Lyndhurst ; 
it was opposed by Lord Stanhope; and upon division 
rejected by 110 votes against 78. Much stress having 
been laid upon the absurdity, if not impiety, of 
obliging persons to take an oath to abjure the rights 
of a family now for many years extinct, Lord Derby 
brought in a Bill to Amend the Oath of Abjuration, 
by simply omitting the names of King James the 
Second and his descendants, leaving it general 
against all persons except the House of Hanover. 
This bill was permitted to pass through Committee, 



268 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

but so many objections were urged by Government 
and Lord Lyndhurst that Lord Derby was ultimately 
obliged to withdraw it, having clearly shown that 
the objections made to the oath were not against its 
absurdity or unreasonableness, but against its effi- 
ciency in excluding from Parliament those whom its 
opponents desired to admit. On the 3rd of July, the 
Bill for establishing a New Court for Divorce and 
Matrimonial Causes went through Committee and 
was reported to the House. On the 4th, the Cam- 
bridge University Eeform Bill passed through Com- 
mittee. An amendment to exclude Dissenters from 
-the Senate was carried by a large majority. On the 
10th, the Select Committee on the Office of Clerk of 
the Parliament recommended a retiring pension of 
1,6001. a year for Lord Devon, under special circum- 
stances. At the time of his accession to the peerage 
he held the office of Clerk to the Parliament, and was 
eligible for a pension on retiring, but then declined 
it. Circumstances had since made it necessary to 
him, and the House voted it in consideration of his 
former services. On the 14th, in Committee on the 
Scotch Parochial Schools Bill, the clause dispensing 
with the religious test hitherto taken by the school- 
master was struck out by 50 against 20. When the 
bill went down to the Commons, they reinserted the 
clause; but the Lords resolved to insist on their 
amendments. On the 15th, a Bill for enabling the 
Bishops of London and Durham to retire, on account 
of their age and infirmities, was read a second time, 
and, after much opposition, finally passed. On the 
22nd, a Bill for increasing the Coastguard as a 
Reserve for the Navy, and transferring the control of 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 269 

it to the Admiralty, went through Committee. In 

the House of Commons on the 26th of February, the 

Ministers withdrew their Bill for abolishing Local 

Dues on Shipping to avoid a defeat. The bill was 

very unpopular at the seaports, having power to levy 

the dues, especially at Liverpool, where they were held 

under an ancient charter; and the tone of Mr. Lowe, 

in moving the introduction of the bill, holding cheap 

the inviolability of charters, when they were found to 

stand in the way of changes, did not render it more 

palatable to the House. Early in April, Lord John 

Russell's resolutions on National Education were, 

after two nights' debate, laid aside, the motion of 

Mr. Henley, M.P. for Oxfordshire, that the Chairman 

do leave the chair, being carried by 260 against 158. 

On the 15th, Mr. Spoon er obtained leave to bring in 

a Bill respecting Maynooth College, after three 

divisions on the preliminary Committee, by 159 

against 142. These checks to the Ministry were 

counterbalanced by the rejection of Mr. Whiteside's 

resolution respecting the surrender of Kars, by 303 

against 127, after three nights' debate. 

My own more immediate part in this Session, 
besides my share in the discussion on Maritime 
Eights, already fully described, consisted in speaking 
shortly on the petitions from seamen, presented by 
Lord Ellenborough, February 14th ; sitting on Ap- 
peals, February 15th; speaking in support of the 
Report of the Select Committee on Agricultural 
Statistics (of which I had been a member), when the 
bill was to be read a second time, on March 15th ; 
and again speaking, July 22nd, on the Coastguard 
Bill, suggesting additional measures required for 



270 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

forming a reserve for the navy. I also attended the 
Select Committee on Transportation from June 10th 
to July 8th, with a view to continuing' and extending 
the present system, with the exception of Western 
Australia. The witnesses were not much in favour of 
extending it in the Australian Colonies, and they 
were not unanimous as to the Falkland Islands ; no 
other spots appeared eligible, as it was considered 
that the public opinion would be adverse to forming 
penal settlements in Western Africa on account of 
the climate. Of public events of a more general 
character, were the return of the party sent by the 
Hudson's Bay Company in search of the remains of 
Sir John Franklin's party. At Montreal Island, near 
the mouth of the great Fish River, they found various 
articles confirming Dr. Eae's statement, but no 
papers nor any bodies. The Esquimaux said the 
party had died one by one, of hunger, in the winter 
of 1849. 

In February the Queen instituted an order of merit 
for personal labour, the badge a bronze cross, called 
the 6 Victoria Cross,' open to all ranks, and a small pe- 
cuniary stipend attached to it. In March, Covent 
Garden Theatre was totally destroyed by fire. On 
May 7th the Queen went in state to a ball at the 
Turkish Ambassador's, the Sultan having been pre- 
sent at balls given at Constantinople by the English 
and by the French Ambassadors — a great departure 
from the old Turkish etiquette. On the 29th there was 
a general illumination and fireworks, on a great scale, 
in Hyde Park, the Green Park, and on Primrose 
Hill, in honour of the Peace. On July 9th, the three 
battalions of the Foot Guards that had been on ser- 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 271 

vice abroad since the beginning of the war, entered 
London on their return from the Crimea. They 
marched from Yauxhall Station past Buckingham 
Palace, to Hyde Park, where the other four bat- 
talions were drawn up to receive them, and the 
Queen then reviewed the whole brigade. The bat- 
talions which went on service lost by action or sick- 
ness during that time 2,164 officers and men (as 
commemorated by the monument in Waterloo Place), 
being about two-thirds of the number which origin- 
ally embarked. At this time the Duke of Cambridge 
was appointed Commander of the forces in the place 
of Lord Hardinge who had been obliged to resign, 
in consequence of a paralytic attack, from which he 
afterwards recovered sufficiently to ride his pony, but 
died in the following September, at his seat, South 
Park, in Kent. In October, Dr. Tait, Dean of Car- 
lisle, was consecrated Bishop of London, in the room 
of Bishop Blomfield ; and Bishop Longley, of Eipon, 
was translated to Durham, in the room of Bishop 
Maltby, these two Bishops having resigned their 
sees under the Act of this session. In November, 
Lord Palmerston visited Manchester and Liverpool, 
and at public dinners there, expressed his leaning 
towards the American views of allowing merchant 
ships to pass unmolested during the war, upon the 
high seas. In December, the newspapers announced 
the capture of Herat by the Persians, and a declara- 
tion of war in consequence, by the Governor-Gene- 
ral of India against Persia, and a few days after- 
wards his proclamation on sending an expedition to 
the Persian Gulf. And two days before the end of 
the year news arrived of an attack upon Canton by 



272 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Admiral Michael Seymour, in consequence of the 
refusal of the Chinese authorities to make reparation 
for the seizure of a small English vessel, aud their 
insult to our Consul (Mr. Parkes). Thus we had 
scarcely concluded peace in Europe, before we found 
ourselves engaged in hostilities with two Asiatic 
powers. In the commencement of this year the 
Ottoman Council decided to place the Christian 
subjects of the Porte on the same footing as the 
Mussulmans. 

In March, the Empress of the French was con- 
fined of a son, who was styled ' The Prince Im- 
perial.' In May and June the rivers Loire and 
Rhone overflowed their banks to a great extent, 
causing great destruction of property. The Emperor 
visited Lyons, Avignon, &c, to view personally the 
extent of the damage, to grant pecuniary assistance 
to the sufferers, and to devise means of protection 
against similar disasters. In October, the Erench 
Minister at Naples was recalled. 

In the United States of North America, after 
many unsuccessful ballots for want of an absolute 
majority, Mr. Banks (of Boston) was chosen Speaker 
of the House of Eepreseutatives by a majority of 
three over his opponent, the numbers being, for 
Banks 103, Aiken 100. 

In June, the United States Government dismissed 
the British Minister (Mr. Crampton), and withdrew 
their Exequatur from three British Consuls, on the 
ground that they had enlisted men in the United 
States to serve in the British Army. In November, 
Mr. Buchanan was elected President ; in his speech 
he stated that Russia accepts the proposition to 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 273 

exempt merchant vessels (unless carrying contraband 
of war) from capture on the high seas ; and that 
•France is favourable to it. Nothing practical, how- 
ever, resulted from this. An attempt was made this 
year to assassinate the King of Naples at a review, 
by a soldier, who being seized confessed that he had 
enlisted with the view of being better able to commit 
the deed. 

At the commencement of this year, the kingdom 
of Oude was annexed to the territories of the East 
India Company, by proclamation of the Governor- 
General (Lord Dalhousie), the ex-king of Oude re- 
siding under surveillance at Calcutta. 

We spent the Easter holidays this year at 
Brighton, going there on March 1 7th, and staying till 
April 8th. You had just before returned from Eton 
for the holidays ; being first in the Christmas holiday 
task (English History), and first of the lower boys 
in French. General Dyneley made you at this time a 
present of a very handsome writing-case, which had 
belonged to his son Douglas, who fell at Sebastopol. 

While at Brighton, we went over to Lewes, to see 
the Russian prisoners of war, who were confined in 
the building formerly used as a gaol. Y^u also com- 
menced learning to swim in Brill's Baths, and took 
lessons in drawing from Mr. Earp. On May 9th, we 
gave a dinner to the newly-arrived Minister from the 
United States (Mr. Dallas), who is of the same family 
as Sir Robert Dallas; and in the evening, your 
mother had a party, at which about 300 people were 
present. 

On June 9th, we learnt that you Lad taken fifth 
c in trials for the lower fifth form,' thus becoming ' an 

T 



274 MEMOEANDA OF MY LIFE. 

upper boy.' On July 26th, being Election Saturday, 
we went down to Eton to see you, and showed you 
the church of Stoke Pogis, the scene of 6 Gray's 
Elegy,' and the monument in Stoke Park; on a 
former visit we had shown you the grounds of Drop- 
more, the seat of Lord Grenville, the friend and col- 
league of Pitt, and still occupied by his widow. 

The views from the ground are fine, and the Ameri- 
can plants in great profusion. It is specially cele- 
brated for its fine specimens of the fir tribe, Deodara 
Araucaria, and other pines. As we had visited Wales 
and Scotland during the two preceding summers, we 
determined to extend our tour this year to the Conti- 
nent, having ascertained that if we went beyond 
Paris, you would be granted an extra week's holi- 
day, to allow for your return. Having engaged a 
courier, we accordingly started on July 31st from 
London, crossed the channel from Dover to Calais, 
and proceeded by rail through Lille and Ghent to 
Antwerp, and thence by Aix-la-chapelle to the 
Ehine. 

From Frankfort, we had intended to visit some of 
the ancient cities of Germany, as Nuremberg, Mu- 
nich, and perhaps Eatisbon ; but the extreme heat of 
the weather induced us to prefer the cooler breezes 
of Switzerland ; and from Frankfort we ascended the 
course of the Ehine to Basle. 

Here we engaged a voiturier, who took us to Neu- 
chatel and Yverdun (whence we made a trip by rail 
to Lausanne and back), thence to Berne, from 
whence we returned through Soleure, and over the 
Ober-Hauenstein to Basle. From Basle we took the 
rail along the left bank of the Ehine to Strasburg, 



POLITICAL EYEOTS, 1853 TO 1859. 275 

and thence proceeded by Nancy and Epernay to 
Paris, which we reached on August 28rd, and re- 
mained there till September 8th. 

On that day, we went by rail to Eouen, and on 
the following to Dieppe. Here we hired a carriage 
to take ns across to Abbeville, in order to see in our 
way the Chateau d'Eu, formerly belonging to the 
family of Guise, and fitted up by King Louis Philippe 
as a country residence. Here he received our Queen. 
From Abbeville, we proceeded to Boulogne by rail, 
thence crossed over to Folkestone, and reached Berke- 
ley Square on the 12th, having made a very success- 
ful tour. You will find all the details of what we saw 
and did, in a little MS. volume, being my diary of the 
tour. You returned to Eton on the 18th, but we re- 
mained in London till the end of the month, when we 
went down to Lord Salisbury's (Hatfield) for two 
nights, and on October 2nd, we finally left London 
for Brighton, where we took a house (43 Marine Pa- 
rade) for a month, but on the 23rd, we received a 
telegram from Mr. Birch that you had 'got the 
measles comfortably.' We immediately started for 
Eton, which we reached at 3.80 p.m., and found you 
in bed, but having no fever, and in good spirits. We 
remained at the c Christopher ' (your mother passing 
most of her time in your sick room) till the 31st, 
when you were considered sufficiently recovered to 
be moved to Brighton, where we all arrived by half- 
past three o'clock. By November 8th, you were so 
well, that we began our preparations for returning to 
London and taking you to Eton, but on the 9th 
some eruption came out upon you, and increased so 
much the next morning, that we sent for Mr. Taylor, 

T 2 



276 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

who ordered you to continue in bed,, as he could not 
say what the rash was. We therefore stopped our 
preparations for going to London, and as the term of 
our house was out the next day, and the party to 
whom it was let would not consent to our remain- 
ing beyond the day after, we had to look out for 
fresh quarters, and after some difficulty found rooms 
at the York Hotel, to which you were removed on 
the 12th, and immediately put into bed again, where 
you remained till the 14th, when you were allowed 
to get up; but Mr. Taylor gave a certificate that 
you would be unfit to resume your studies for some 
weeks, and you consequently did not return to Eton 
till after the Christmas holidays. Tour principal 
amusement during your recovery was playing at 
chess. 

On the 21st we received a letter from Mr. Birch, 
recommending Mr. C. D. Yonge to give you lessons 
during the holidays, and sending the subject of an 
historical essay for you to write. On the 24th we 
returned to London for the winter. During these 
holidays you attended another course of Faraday's 
Juvenile Lectures on Attraction (viz. Gravitation of 
Particles, Chemical, Electrical, and Magnetic), at 
which the Prince of Wales was present; and took 
lessons in riding and drill. 

Your gaieties were two plays, one at the Olympic, 
and the other at the Princess's Theatre ; and at home 
a children's party, at which Mr. Crawford recited 
portions of the c Merchant of Venice,' and after 
supper you danced. On January 15th (1857) you 
returned to Eton quite recovered from your measles 
and its consequences. The chief events to other 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 277 

members of the family were, that Charles Abbot 
took his degree of M.A. early in this year, and in 
October came to visit us at Brighton, just before we 
were summoned to Eton by your measles. The 
Henry Laws spent two months of the spring at 
Boulogne. In September their eldest son, Edward, 
took leave of us, before starting in the c Highflyer,' 
as he supposed, for South America ; but her station 
was subsequently changed to the East Indies, and he 
remained abroad five years, chiefly on the coasts of 
China. 

The William T. Laws returned from Boulogne in 
June, to occupy her apartments in Hampton Court 
Palace. Charles Law had a son and heir born April 
24th. General Dyneley was placed on the list of 
officers receiving 1001. a year * for distinguished ser- 
vices.' In December he was promoted to the rank of 
Lieutenant- General. His son Edward returned from 
the Crimea in July. 

On May 27th, Lord St. Leonards having resigned 
his seat in the Executive Committee of the Patriotic 
Fund, of which he was Chairman, I was appointed 
by the Eoyal Commissioners to succeed him in the 
Committee, with the view of being the new Chair- 
man, and I was elected accordingly, on June 11th. 
The Commissioners having upon the report of a 
Special Committee (of which I was Chairman) re- 
solved upon founding an Orphan School for 300 
girls, the Executive Committee were much occupied 
this year in preparing a scheme for it, and looking 
out for a site for the building. They finally decided 
on accepting the offer of Lord Spencer for a piece of 
land about 50 acres, on Wandsworth Common ; and 



278 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the plans of the building having been approved, the 
first stone was laid on July 11th, 1857, by the Queen 
in person; the Archbishop of Canterbury opening 
the proceedings with a prayer, and the Prince Con- 
sort reading an address in the name of the Eoyal 
Commissioners. The Committee had also to arrange 
the terms on which grants were to be made to the 
Wellington College, and other Military and Naval 
Schools, some of which produced much discussion; 
that particularly to the Eoyal Naval School was not 
satisfactorily concluded for two years. 

We were also involved in much disagreeable cor- 
respondence with the Roman Catholic authorities, 
who endeavoured to get possession of the education 
of all the children of mixed marriages, whereas the 
Commissioners intended the children should follow the 
religion of the father, as was practised in the royal 
schools of Chelsea and Greenwich. This was brought 
under the decision of the Court of Queen's Bench, 
in the case of Alicia Eace ; where the Court decided 
that, in the case of a girl under fourteen years of 
age, when the father had left no precise directions 
as to the religion in which his children should be 
brought up, it should be at the option of the 
mother. 

The circumstances of the case were very singular. 
The father, a sergeant of marines, killed in the 
attack of Petropaulowsky, was a Baptist; he had 
some years previously married the widow (as he sup- 
posed) of a soldier who came to England from 
Gibraltar in the same ship in which Eace was serving. 
After his death, the widow applied to have her two 
children placed at school at the expense of the 



1853 TO 1859. 279 

Patriotic Fund, from which, she also received a widow's 
allowance. One child was accordingly placed under 
a Protestant clergyman, and the other (a girl) at the 
Seamen's Orphan School at Hampstead. In October 
(1856) the mother came to the office, and said that 
her priest (she being a Eoman Catholic) had promised 
to get a situation for her boy, provided both children 
were given up to him, and desired that they might 
be given up accordingly. We replied that if the 
children were willing they should be removed. 
Accordingly, the boy having given his consent, he 
was made over to the mother ; but the girl having 
refused to leave the school at Hampstead, and having 
satisfied myself, by seeing her there, that she under- 
stood the question, and had really conscientious 
grounds for her refusal, and having also consulted 
Lord St. Leonards, I directed that no order should 
be given to the school at Hampstead to deliver 
her up. Mrs. Eace then obtained a writ of habeas 
corpus to the governess of the school to produce the 
girl in the Court of Queen's Bench. She was brought 
up before Mr. Justice Crampton on January 9th, 
1857, who, finding that there were disputed facts, at 
once deferred the case for hearing in full court, 
directing the child in the mean time to remain in the 
school. 

A fabricated account, however, appeared in some 
newspaper of this proceeding, stating that the judge 
had heard a portion of the case, and strongly objected 
to the conduct of the commissioners. This notice 
produced a very different result from that intended 
by its authors. The case came on upon the 17th, 
and the pleadings occupied the whole day. The 



280 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

Court deferred giving judgment to a future day. On 
the 21st, Lord Campbell (Chief Justice) pronounced 
the decision in favour of the mother, as before stated, 
and the poor girl was accordingly handed over to her. 
The school committee of the Seamen's Orphans, in 
consequence of fresh information received, took imme- 
diate steps to make her a ward in Chancery ; and on 
February 11th Vice-Chancellor Kindersley decreed 
that Alicia Race should be sent back to the school at 
Hampstead, and appointed two Protestant guardians 
for her, thus practically reversing the judgment of 
the Court of Queen's Bench. The Roman Catholic 
protectors acquiesced in this decision, probably the 
more readily, because the character of Mrs. Eaee had 
rather suffered in the interval, and its goodness had 
been made one cause why her child should not be 
detained from her. 

The account of the proceedings before Justice 
Crampton, to which I have before alluded, happened 
to be read by a person who had known Mrs. Eace pre- 
vious to her first marriage, and he sent us information 
by which we were able to trace that the first husband 
had proceeded from Gibraltar with his regiment to 
the TVest Indies, was there invalided to England, and 
had settled at Birmingham, where he received his 
pension till the time of his death, about a year ago ; 
that consequently the second marriage with Race 
was void, and Mrs. Race liable to a prosecution for 
bigamy. The boy was a child by her first husband. We 
had, in the course of the spring, several other disputed 
cases of children of Roman Catholic mothers, and in 
the autumn Archbishop Cullen published a pamphlet 
accusing the officers of the Patriotic Pund, and, by 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 28! 

inference, the Commissioners themselves, of injustice 
towards Roman Catholic children with a yiew of 
making converts. This caused us much correspon- 
dence ; but ultimately the Commissioners approved 
the conduct of their officers, and replied accordingly 
to Archbishop Cullen. 

The Parliamentary Session of 1857 opened on 
February 3rd. The address in the House of Lords was 
moved by Lord Cork, and seconded by Lord Airlie. 
Lord Grey moved an amendment to those paragraphs 
which related to the war with Persia, which he con- 
sidered impolitic; it was negatived by 45 against 12. 
On the 12th, Lord Palmerston, in the House of 
Commons, admitted the existence of a treaty between 
France and Austria, which on two former occasions 
he had denied, and had ridiculed the credulity of 
Disraeli for asserting. 

In the House of Lords, the motion of Lord Salis- 
bury for a select committee on prison discipline was 
refused by the Government. 

On the 13th, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
opened his budget, announcing that the war income 
tax of 9d. and the war malt tax would be taken 
off. On the 20th, on the motion of Lord Stanhope, a 
select committee was appointed to improve the 
entries in journals of the House, and minutes of pro- 
ceedings. The principal results of this committee 
were the insertion of the names of peers who asked 
questions of witnesses before committees, and the 
names of those voting on divisions, which were 
printed with the daily minutes ; also a new mode of 
taking divisions, both parties going out of the House, 
instead of one going out and the other remaining in 



282 MEMORANDA OF IfY LIFE. 

the House to be counted. The changes were found 
upon experience to be improvements. On the same 
day, Lord Harrowby (Privy Seal), in answer to a 
question, stated that Government was preparing 
measures for dividing the See of London, and pro- 
viding for retirement of bishops. This division has 
not yet taken place (1864), though there has been a 
vacancy of the see. 

The conduct of our political agents in China in in- 
volving England in war with that empire on what 
appeared to be insufficient grounds, had been the sub- 
ject of much animadversion, and resolutions in both 
Houses of Parliament were moved condemning it. 
The cause of quarrel was the seizure, by the Canton 
authorities, of the crew of a small country -built vessel, 
denominated a lorcha, manned with native Chinese, 
but carrying British colours. The men were arrested, 
as pirates, and the colours hauled down, by the Chinese 
officers. Our Consul, Mr. Parkes, immediately de- 
manded their release, and that they should be given 
up to him at his office as British subjects. After 
some hesitation, the Chinese let the men go, but 
refused to take them to the Consul's office. On this 
the Consul called on the Admiral, who was then in 
Canton river, to make reprisals for the insult offered 
to the British flag ; this he did by seizing a junk, 
supposed to be belonging to the Government. Had 
the affair terminated here, till reference had been 
made home, all might have passed off peaceably. 
From the papers laid before Parliament, it appeared 
that the only claim of the vessel to carry British 
colours was founded on a temporary licence of the 
governor of Hong Kong, which had expired before she 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1S59. 283 

quitted Macao, on her voyage to Canton. The crew 
were all native Chinese, and probably the subjects of 
the Emperor. The only fault of the Canton authori- 
ties appeared to have been the seizure without pre- 
vious communication with our Consul, to which he 
was entitled under the treaty of Canton. But, un- 
fortunately, Sir John Bowring, the Governor of Hong 
Kong and Superintendent of Trade, to whom Mr. 
Partes had communicated the proceedings, as his 
superior, thought this a good opportunity to revive 
another claim under the treaty of Nankin, that of 
admission within the walls of the city of Canton, and 
demanded an interview with the Yiceroy at his official 
residence in the city. This the Yiceroy declined, re- 
minding Sir John that we had waived the point for 
fourteen years expressly on the ground of the un- 
governable character of the populace of Canton, who 
had always threatened to resist by force the admission 
of foreigners, and in their present temper he feared 
some outrage might be offered to Sir John ; but he 
expressed his willingness to meet him at the Great 
Temple, on the opposite bank of the river. Sir John 
insisted on the fulfilment of the letter of the treaty, 
and refused the proffered interview as insufficient, 
directing hostilities to be carried on till the Chinese 
gave way. Thus commenced a war which terminated 
in the capture of Canton and its Viceroy, and in the 
treaty of Tien-sing, and led to a second, which caused 
the destruction of the Imperial Palace of Yuen-min- 
yuen and submission of Pekin itself to the united 
forces of England and France. Lord Derby moved 
his resolutions in the House of Lords on February 
24th j the debate lasted two nights, but on the division 



284 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the Government had a majority of 36 votes, the reso- 
lutions being negatived by 146 against 110. 

I had read all the papers carefully, and had drawn 
up the heads for a speech, but circumstances prevented 
me from taking part in the debate. 

The same question was brought forward in the House 
of Commons by Mr. Cobden; the debate was continued 
through four nights ; and on March 3rd the Govern- 
ment was defeated by a majority of 16 votes — the 
numbers for the resolutions being 263 against 247. 
Much excitement ensued to know whether Govern- 
ment would resign, in consequence of this defeat, or 
would dissolve Parliament and appeal to the consti- 
tuencies. On the 5th, Lord Granville announced to the 
House of Lords that they had resolved on the latter 
course, and the event fully justified their decision. 

Parliament was dissolved on March 22nd, and a cry 
being raised that the late majority had been gained by 
a factious combination of parties who were willing to 
sacrifice the honour of their country to their own per- 
sonal interests, many of that majority lost their seats ; 
the loss principally fell upon those who were called 
' Peace at any price men.' Bright and Milner 
Gibson were turned out by Manchester, and Cobden 
by Huddersfield. In East Sussex we lost one member, 
Augustus Puller being replaced by Dodson; Lord 
Pevensey, who had only six weeks before beaten 
Dodson, was again returned, but second on the poll. 
The Speaker, Charles Shaw Lefevre, having an- 
nounced his intention to resign, was created Viscount 
Eversley. 

The new Parliament met on April 30th, and elected 
for their Speaker Mr. Evelyn Denison without oppo- 
sition. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1553 TO 1859. 285; 

On May 18th the Queen sent a message to both 
Houses announcing the proposed marriage of the 
Princess Boyal to Prince Frederick William of 
Prussia (the heir presumptive to the Crown), asking 
their concurrence and assistance in making suitable 
provision for her eldest daughter. On the 22nd the 
Probate and Administration Bill passed through 
committee in the House of Lords, a division being 
taken for the first time on the new plan. On the 
25th the Bill establishing a new Court of Divorce 
came into committee ; forty-three clauses were gone 
through, five divisions were taken, two of them car- 
ried against Government. On the 28th the remaining 
clauses were gone through, amendments being carried 
to abolish actions for - crim. con.' and to make 
adultery a misdemeanour. On June 15th a new Oath 
of Allegiance Bill, which involved the admission of 
Jews to Parliament, passed through committee in the 
House of Commons, an amendment to insert the 
words * on the true faith of a Christian ' being nega- 
tived by 341 against 201 votes. This Bill was, how- 
ever, rejected in the House of Lords on the second 
reading by 174 against 139. On the 18th the 
second rea,ding of the Ministers' Money (Ireland) 
Bill was opposed by Lord Derby, but carried by 101 
against 96, giving Ministers a majority of 5. The 
annual motion in the House of Commons for vote by 
ballot was this year negatived on the second reading 
by 257 against 189. The session was prorogued on 
August 28. 

The Queen of Holland came to the House of Lords 
on July 17th to hear the debate. 

On June 27th telegraphic accounts arrived of the 



286 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

mutiny of the native troops (of the Bengal army) 
stationed at Meerut, who marched thence to Delhi, 
where they were joined by three other regiments and 
a son of the Emperor proclaimed King. This was the 
beginning of the great Indian Mutiny, which caused 
so much misery and bloodshed, and threatened at 
one time to subvert our power in India. The causes 
of the mutiny appear to have been, on the part of the 
Hindoo troops, an idea that it was intended to make 
them all lose caste by obliging them to bite greased 
cartridges, which had been introduced with the new 
muskets, the tighter fitting of the cartridge making 
it necessary to use some lubricating substance to 
cause the cartridge to be more easily rammed down ; 
and the Hindoos believed this grease to be made of 
the fat of cows, which is an abomination to them to 
touch. The Mahometans were alarmed at the 
numerous annexations which had been made by 
the Company, especially that of the kingdom of 
Oude. The refusal, also, of the Company any longer 
to recognise the privilege of adopting a successor, 
hitherto practised both by Mahometan and Hindoo 
Princes, rankled in their minds; but, excepting in 
Oude, the insurrection was chiefly confined to the 
military classes. 

The following mail brought intelligence of the 
death of the Commander-in-Chief in India, General 
G. Anson, from cholera. Sir Colin Campbell (subse- 
quently created Lord Clyde) was immediately ap- 
pointed to succeed him, and started for India the 
evening of the day following his appointment. He 
had served previously with great distinction in the 
Punjaub as well as in the Crimea. He was followed 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 287 

by strong reinforcements of troops ; and before the 
close of the year the capture of Delhi by General 
Wilson, the successes of General Havelock, and the 
complete relief of the troops stationed in the Resi- 
dency of Lucknow, and the defeat of the mutineers 
in the city, after six days' hard fighting, by the Com- 
mander-in-Chief in person, raised the hopes of the 
most desponding, and promised the ultimate reduction 
of the mutineers. 

In Persia the war proceeded successfully ; and in 
China, although the European factories were burnt, 
and Admiral Seymour was obliged to retire from his 
position before Canton till reinforcements should 
arrive, the Chinese fleet in that river was destroyed 
in two actions, and hostilities did not extend to the 
northern ports, where all remained quiet. 

On the 14th of April, the Queen was delivered of a 
Princess ; and on the 30th died H.R.H. the Duchess 
of Gloucester, the last survivor of the children of 
King George the Third. On June 26th, the Queen 
distributed in Hyde Park the Victoria Crosses * for 
personal valour.' About 6,000 troops were present. 
In May, Prince Albert opened the Exhibition of Art 
Treasures at Manchester. The collection of pictures 
was remarkably fine ; many had never been exhibited 
to the public before. 

On November 3rd, the first ineffectual attempt was 
made to launch ' The Great Eastern ' steamship. 
Several weeks elapsed before she was fairly afloat, 
and at last she was launched sideways by the applica- 
tion of powerful hydraulic rams. I lost two very 
old friends this year : Lord Amherst, by whose kind- 
ness I had accompanied his Embassy through China 



288 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

in 1816 ; and Lady Maxwell, widow of Sir Murray 
Maxwell, who commanded the 'Alceste' frigate, 
which conveyed Lord Amherst's Embassy to China. 
In the House of Lords I spoke (March 17th) in the 
debate for the production of Admiral Seymour's 
despatches, and (July 2nd) a few words on Lord 
Salisbury's question as to filling up the appointment 
of ' Admiral of the Fleet,' which had remained a 
long time vacant ; and on the 7th in favour of Lord 
Kinnaird's motion for Select Committee on the case of 
the coal-whippers. I attended this committee on four 
days ; the Roman Catholic Charities Committee on 
the 16th and 23rd of July ; and sate as Chairman of 
Committee on a group of railways from 27th to 30th. 
In January, General Sleigh having become involved 
in pecuniary difficulties by the failure of the Eoyal 
British Bank, desired to give up Kidbrooke at once, 
to which I consented, and sent down servants to take 
possession; and on the 20th we went down ourselves to 
see the state of the place, and again on the 7th April, 
to settle the repairs, &c, to be done to render it fit 
for a new lease. On the 30th of July, we went down 
there for the summer, and received short visits from 
Charles Abbot, the Dallases, and Henry Laws ; and 
you amused yourself in fishing, riding, and acting with 
your cousins. Mons. Clerville also came down for a 
fortnight to give you lessons in French. On the 7th 
of September we went up to London for a few days, 
in order to take you back to Eton, and to take leave 
of the Henry Laws, who are going to Nice for this 
winter, having let their house for two years. On the 
19th of September, Mr. Fish came to look at the 
place, and on the 25th signed an agreement to hire it 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 289 

for three years. We left Kidbrooke on the 8tli of 
October, and, after staying a few days in London, 
went down to Brighton, where we remained (at 
2 Queensbury Place) till the end of November, and 
then returned to London for the winter. A good 
deal of my time this year was taken up with the 
business of the Patriotic Fund, including the case of 
Alicia Race, the attacks of the Roman Catholic Arch- 
bishop Cullen, the obtaining a site for the girls' 
school, and the negotiation with the Council of the 
Royal Naval School respecting the terms on which 
the Patriotic Fund boys should be admitted. This 
was not concluded till the following year. We obtained 
fifty acres of land on Wandsworth Common for our 
girls' school ; and the first stone of the building was 
laid by Her Majesty in person on the 11th of July. 
A temporary school was in the mean time established 
at Putney. On the 20th of July I was elected Presi- 
dent of the Royal Naval Benevolent Society, in the 
room of Yice-Admiral Lord Radstock, deceased ; 
this only required attendance at the quarterly meet- 
ings. With regard to other members of the family, 
Charles Abbot came to London in February to see 
the Bishop of Oxford about ordination, on the title 
of his Christ Church studentship, but he did not take 
orders. In May he complained that he found hard 
reading bring on a return of the pains in his back. 
In August, Charles Law, John Ramsden, Frank 
Law, and Edward Dyneley received orders to pro- 
ceed to India with their respective regiments. 
Edward Dyneley dined with us in Berkeley Square 
on September 10th, which was the last time^we 
ever saw him, as he fell a victim to the climate soon 

u 



290 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

after his arrival at Calcutta. On October 24th, 
George Towiy die 3. of a decline; he had been very 
delicate from his youth, and had of late years gradu- 
ally grown worse. We heard from Mrs. Charles 
Law, the Eecorder's widow, that her daughter Bessie 
was now Superior of a Nunnery at Hollo way. On 
July 19th, I went down to Oxford, to settle with the 
Dean of Christ Church about your entrance, and 
arranged that you should be entered in 1859, as a 
'Nobleman.' In October, I attended the Quarter 
Sessions at Lewes, and on December 22nd, I was 
introduced, at Miss Coutts's, to the celebrated African 
traveller, Dr. Livingstone. On January 14th, 1858, 
an attempt was made to assassinate the Emperor of 
the French as he was going with the Empress to 
the Opera at Paris, by throwing grenades into his 
carriage ; 102 persons were wounded, including an 
Aid-de-Camp, who was in the Emperor's carriage; 
the Emperor and Empress both escaped unhurt. 
Four Italians were arrested as the assassins ; one of 
them, Orsini, who proved to be the principal con- 
spirator, was himself wounded by the explosion. 
On the trial evidence was brought to show that 
these grenades had been manufactured in England, 
and sent over to the conspirators by a certain Dr. 
Bernard. This person was brought to trial in Lon- 
don, on a charge of conspiracy to murder, but was 
acquitted, the jury not being satisfied with the 
credibility of the witnesses. 

This raised a very ill-feeling in France against 
England, and many addresses were presented to 
th§ Emperor on the subject, especially from several 
Colonels in command of regiments, expressing their 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 291 

anxiety to avenge the cause of their Emperor by 
marching to London. The Emperor replied very 
prudently, but the ill blood produced had a serious 
consequence to our own Ministry. 

Parliament met on February 4th. A Bill was 
brought into the House of Commons, for transferring 
the Government of India from the East India Com- 
pany to the Crown, and on the 15th, the second 
reading was carried by 318 against 171. A Bill was 
also brought in for amending the law against con- 
spiring to murder; it passed through its earlier 
stages without any Serious opposition, but by the 
time it got into Committee, a feeling had gained 
ground that the Ministers had brought it forward 
in deference to the wishes of the French Government, 
and it became so unpopular that an amendment, 
moved by Mr. Milner Gibson, was carried by 234 
against 216, leaving Ministers in a minority of 
19. Much excitement was caused during the fol- 
lowing day by the doubt whether Lord Palmerston 
would resign, or whether he would endeavour to pro- 
cure a vote of confidence. On the 21st, these hopes 
and fears were settled, by the announcement that 
Lord Palmerston had resigned the previous evening, 
that the Queen had consulted Lord Lansdowne as to 
his successor, and that he had told her Majesty that 
Lord Derby was the only possible person to send for, 
that Lord Derby had accordingly kissed hands, and 
was now forming his Ministry. This task he com- 
pleted by the 26th, when the new Government took 
their seats on the Treasury Bench in both Houses of 
Parliament. The principal members of this Govern- 
ment, who had not belonged to that of 1852, were 

u2 



292 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the Chancellor (Sir P. Thesiger, now Lord Chelms- 
ford), Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Secretary of State 
for the Colonies, and General Peel, for War. Sir 
John Pakington became first Lord of the Admiralty, 
Lord Salisbury President of the Council, Lord 
Ellenborough Secretary of State for India, and Lord 
Colchester, Postmaster- General. These caused other 
changes of office; Lord Donoughmore took office 
as Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Lord Car- 
narvon, Under Secretary for the Colonies, and Mr. 
Gathorne Hardy, for Home Department. On Mon- < 
day, March 1st, Lord Derby made a statement of 
the circumstances attending his taking office, and 
the policy of the new Government: this year an 
Indian Bill, and next year a Eeform Bill. Lords 
Granville and Clarendon followed him, and the 
House then adjourned to the 12th. 

On April 27th, the Oaths Bill, which had been sent 
up from the House of Commons, went into Committee. 

The Lord Chancellor (Lord Chelmsford) moved 
the omission of clause 5, admitting Jews into Par- 
liament and into the Privy Council ; after a debate 
of three hours, it was struck out by 119 against 80. 
Upon the Bill returning to the Commons, they re- 
solved to re-insert the clauses struck out by the 
Lords, and appointed Baron Kothschild (a Jew) to 
be one of the Committee of Conference, to carry back 
the Bill to the Lords. This conference was held on 
the 18th, and I attended as one of those on the part 
of the Lords, but I could not see Baron Eothschild, 
who either did not appear at all, or had the good 
sense to keep himself in the background. The April 
mail from India brought accounts of the complete 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 293 

occupation of Lucknow by our troops ; 50,000 rebels 
retiring towards Rohilcund. The chief landowners 
of Oude have submitted. This mail also brought a 
proclamation from the Governor- General, Lord Can- 
ning, declaring the whole territory of Oude to be 
confiscated, subject to such conditions as he might 
impose. This decree seemed to Lord Ellenborough 
so harsh and unjust, that he not only refused his 
sanction to it, but caused this refusal to be published 
in the English newspapers, with the view that the 
opinion of the British Government might be known 
to the natives by the mail, which contained the an- 
nouncement of the proclamation to it, and to prevent 
any concealment by the Indian Government of that 
opinion. This was considered by the Opposition as 
a good ground of attack upon the Ministers, as tend- 
ing unnecessarily to weaken the authority of the 
Indian Government at a crisis of great importance. 
Accordingly, Lord Granville first made it a ground of 
attack in th^ House of Lords on May 7th. On the 
10th, Lord Shaftesbury gave notice of a vote of cen- 
sure on the Government, and a similar notice was 
given in the House of Commons by Mr. Cardwell. 

On the following day, Lord Ellenborough in the 
House vindicated his proceeding in regard to the 
publication of the despatch, took the whole respon- 
sibility upon himself, and concluded by announcing 
that he had tendered his resignation to the Queen, 
which had been accepted, and that he was no longer 
in office. This speech was said to have been remark- 
ably fine and impressive, but so unexpected that I 
was not in the House, and Ave first heard it from 
Henry Law, who came to Berkeley Square at half- 



294 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

past six o'clock, straight from the House of Lords, 
to announce to us what had happened. 

On the 14th, Lord Shaftesbury moved his resolu- 
tion censuring Government for 'premature publica- 
tion' of despatch on Lord Canning's proclamation. 
The Chancellor moved the previous question, and 
the debate was carried on till near 1 a.m. ; the 
Dukes of Argyle, Somerset, and Newcastle, and 
Lords Grey, Cranworth, and Granville, speaking for 
the resolution; Lords Carnarvon, Donoughmore, 
Ellenborough, the Chancellor, and Lord Derby, 
against it; on the division the previous question 
was carried by 167 against 158. The debate in the 
House of Commons lasted a week ; the Opposition 
at first boasted that they should have a majority of 
120, then of 80, and as the day of division approached 
it fell to 15, and its opponents denied that it would 
be carried at all. While the debate was proceeding, 
the protest of General Outram against Lord Canning's 
proposed proclamation and Lord Canning's answer 
were published, and produced considerable effect in 
Lord Ellenborough's favour. On the 21st, several 
members in the House of Commons having stated 
in succession that the news from India had altered 
their opinions, Mr. Cardwell withdrew his resolutions 
of censure, amidst much confusion and laughter ; it 
had been calculated before that he would have been 
beaten by 15 votes. The opinion of the correct- 
ness of Lord Ellenborough's views was much raised 
by the latest news from India, and more proof that 
Mr. Yernon Smith, the former Secretary of State for 
India, had kept back information which he ought to 
have transmitted to his successor. Both Houses 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 295 

tlien adjourned for the Whit sun holidays. On May 
81st, the debate took place on the question of our 
insisting upon our amendments in the Oaths Bill. 
Lord Lucan proposed a compromise, that either 
House might admit Jews by special resolution in 
each case ; Lord Derby objected to terms of Lord 
Lucan' s proposal, but thought the principle worthy 
of consideration. Lord Grey moved the adjourn- 
ment of the debate for a fortnight to give time to 
propose a measure. Lord Derby objected, and the 
motion was negatived by 80 against 68 ; Lords 
Donoughmore and Carnarvon voting in minority. 
Lord Lyndhurst's motion to give up our amendments 
was ultimately withdrawn, on the understanding 
that some measure would be introduced to settle the 
question. 

On June 7fch, Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Lucan 
each laid on the table a new Jew Bill. On the 8th, 
Lord Derby, in reply to Lord Lyttelton, stated that 
the competitive examination for public offices, which 
had been introduced by the late Government, must 
be considered as an experiment to be cautiously ex- 
tended. Lord Clarendon having called attention to 
a speech made at Slough by Mr. Disraeli, at a dinner 
given to him by his constituents, as misrepresenting 
the foreign policy of the late Government, received 
a very spirited answer from Lord Derby. On the 
10th, the second reading of a Bill for the Abolition 
of Property Qualification for Members of Parliament 
was moved by Lord Fortescue, and agreed to by the 
Government, who were much rallied in society on 
this account as having turned Chartists ; this having 
been one of five points of the ' People's Charter,' as 



2S6 MEMOEANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the great petition, presented to the House of Com- 
mons by the unrepresented classes, was called. 

Lord Grey took this occasion to speak against e bit- 
by-bit legislation ' in Parliamentary Reform. In the 
House of Commons, a resolution to place the Army 
entirely under one head (the Horse Guards and 
Ordnance being hitherto independent of each other) 
■was carried against the Government, by a majority 
of two votes. On the 11th Lord Malmesbury an- 
nounced that the King of Naples had agreed to give a 
compensation of 3,0001. to the two engineers seized on 
board the Sardinian steamer ' Cagliari,' and to place 
the vessel herself and her crew at the disposition of 
Her Britannic Majesty. The 'Cagliari ' had been taken 
possession of at sea by some Neapolitan insurgents 
who had embarked on board her for the purpose of 
making a descent on the coast of Naples ; and on her 
return voyage after the descent had been effected, the 
steamer was captured by a Neapolitan frigate and 
taken into Naples as a prize. Lord Palmerston had 
accused the Neapolitan Government of a breach of 
the Laws of Nations, but up to the time of his quit- 
ting office had not obtained any reparation. In the 
House of Commons, Government carried (on the 
11th) their resolutions, that the council of the Secre- 
tary of State for India should consist of not less 
than twelve nor more than fifteen members ; and (on 
the 14th) that they should be in part nominated, and 
part elected. On the 25th, in Committee, the 
Amendments proposed by Lord Palmerston as to the 
number and composition of the Council were rejected 
by large majorities, and the final success of the Bill 
secured. On the 28th, in the House of Lords, Lord 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 297 

Stanhope's motion for an address to the Qneen to 
discontinue the special religious services used on 
November 5th, Martyrdom of King Charles the First, 
and restoration of King Charles the Second, being 
supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was car- 
ried without opposition. 

A motion, earlier in the Session, by'Lord Ebury, 
for an address for a commission to enquire into the 
expediency of revising the Liturgy, being opposed by 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, had been withdrawn. 
On July 1st, the rival Jew Bills of Lord Lucanand 
Lord Lyndhurst came on for discussion. Lord 
Derby having stated his preference for the former, 
Lord Lyndhurst withdrew his Bill, and after debate 
Lord Lucan's Bill was read a second time by 143 
against 97. 

On the 2nd the Duke of Somerset moved the 
second reading of the bill for abolishing Church 
Rates ; the debate lasted till one a.m., when on divi- 
sion there were only 36 votes in favour of second 
reading, and 187 against it. 

On the 10th Lord Malmesbury announced that our 
cruisers for slavers would be withdrawn from the 
coasts of Cuba, but would be retained on the coast 
of Africa. The Government of the United States 
had made great remonstrances against the inter- 
ference with their flag by our cruisers. On the 12th 
a debate took place on the Lords' reasons against 
the Oaths Bill ; amended reasons carried by 50 
against 42. The third reading of Lord Lucan's 
Jew Bill, carried by 33 against 12. On the 15th the 
second reading of the India Bill, brought from the 
House of Commons, was carried without opposition. 



298 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

On tlie 23rd the second reading of the Bill for 
Marriage with Sister of a deceased "Wife was negatived 
by 46 votes against 22. On the 26th Lord Carnarvon 
(ITnder- Secretary for the Colonies) moved the second 
reading of the bill for establishing the colony of 
British Columbia. On the 30th, discussion on the 
rejection of onr amendments on the India Bill by the 
House of Commons. Resolved to insist on one only ; 
that against competition for military cadetships in 
Engineers and Artillery. This the House of Com- 
mons agreed to on division of 98 against 53 ; and on 
August 2nd Parliament was prorog-ued. 

The principal events of a miscellaneous nature 
which occurred this year were the marriage of the 
Princess Eoyal (January 25th) to the Prince of Prus- 
sia. The Eton boys drew their carriage from the 
"Windsor Railway Station up to the Castle. On May 
6th the affianced Queen of Portugal arrived in Lon- 
don en route to Portugal. 

On August 4th the Queen (of England) went to 
Cherbourg to meet the Emperor of the French ; and 
thence proceeded by sea to Germany ; returning to 
England on the 31st. During this month the ' Aga- 
memnon ' returned from laying down a portion of the 
Magnetic Telegraph Cable between Ireland (Yalentia) 
and the United States of Xorth America. An Ameri- 
can frigate met her half way and laid down the other 
portion. After a few formal messages had been ex- 
changed, the telegraph began to show symptoms of be- 
ing out of order, and the experiment ultimately failed 
by the breaking of the cable. The communication still 
(1864) remains interrupted, though several schemes 
have been proposed for laying down a new cable. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 299 

On September 5th the Council of India held their 
first sitting at Leadenhall Street, presided over by 
Lord Stanley, who had succeeded Lord Ellenborough 
as Secretary of State for India. On November 1st 
the Queen's proclamation assuming the government of 
India was read at all the principal stations in India, 
and the Governor-General took the title of Viceroy. 

On the 9th the Prince of Wales, having completed 
his 17th year, was gazetted a Colonel in the army. 
Prince Alfred, a few days previously, entered the 
navy as a Cadet, on board the ' Euryalus ' frigate, 
commanded by Captain Tarleton. 

In October, also, the King of Prussia appointed his 
brother to be Regent, with unrestricted powers, during 
his own incapacity for business. Prom China we heard 
in July of tbe attack upon the Ports at the mouth of 
the Peiho, by Sir Michael Seymour ; and on August 
22nd news came through Petersburgh, transmitted 
to the Prench Ambassador, that peace was concluded. 
This was a very busy year for me personally. On 
February 9th a meeting of the Commissioners of the 
Royal Patriotic Pund was held, the Prince Consort 
in the chair ; at which a report to the Queen was 
agreed to. Mr. Ball (a Eoman Catholic), one of the 
Commissioners, declined to sign this ; giving his rea- 
sons at length, in writing. On March 16th this re- 
port was presented to the Queen. On the 26th I 
received a note from the Duke of Norfolk, that he 
would ask in the House of Lords for the production 
of Mr. Ball's letter. On referring the question to 
the Prince Consort he considered the production 
of the letter should be delayed till Major Harris, 
the District Officer at Dublin, whose conduct was 



300 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

arraigned by Mr. Ball, should have time to reply to it. 
Being too nnwell myself to attend the House of 
Lords, Lord Hardwicke (a Commissioner) gave the 
answer for me. 

On April 15th the Duke of Norfolk gave notice of 
moving for certain returns respecting the Patriotic 
Fund. On the 17th the Duke moved four resolutions, 
the last requiring detailed returns respecting the 
children in the schools, religion of their parents, &c. 
I replied, objecting to this fourth resolution, and 
was supported by Lords Derby, Camoys (Roman 
Catholic), St. Leonards, Granville, Campbell, and the 
Duke of Newcastle. No one spoke in favour of 
the Duke of Norfolk's resolution, and he withdrew 
it : the three first were agreed to. 

On the change of Ministry in February, Lord Derby 
had offered me the post of Postmaster- General, which 
I readily accepted ; and this office alone fully occu- 
pied my time. The Postmaster-General had at that 
time under his direction and control above 23,000 
persons, as clerks, postmasters, letter-carriers, mes- 
sengers, &c. [they now (1864) exceed 24,000] ; and 
the discipline of so numerous a body of persons 
required constant supervision. There were also 
numerous deputations to be received, and letters to 
be answered from individuals, upon subjects touching 
their private interests, besides the current business 
of the offi.ce. The salary of the office was 2,500£. a 
year, paid monthly by the Accountant- General of the 
Post Office. The patronage had been formerly very 
large, but since 1853 it had been reduced to almost 
nothing : not only the higher clerkships were to be 
filled by promotion from lower grades within the 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 301 

office, but the country postmasterships above a cer- 
tain sum (1802. a year) were also to be filled up from 
the General Post Office, and those below that sum 
were appropriated by the Treasury, and given from 
political motives, the Postmaster-General having only 
a veto. The junior clerks, upon their first appoint- 
ments, were also subjected to competitive examina- 
tions, which left only letter-carriers at the absolute 
disposal of the Postmaster-General. This loss of 
patronage was, however, by no means an unmixed 
evil, as it gave an unanswerable reply to troublesome 
applicants for appointments to which they had no 
claim. 

On February 25th the Duke of Argyle (the retiring 
Postmaster-General) called on me to talk over Post- 
Office affairs, and to recommend to me his private 
secretary, Mr. Scott, who (after enquiry) I appointed. 
On March 1st I attended for the first time at the 
Post Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand ; the Duke of 
Argyle met me there, and introduced the heads of 
departments. On the next day I went again, and 
had a general conversation on the business of the 
office with the principal secretary, Mr. Eowland Hill. 

The mode of transacting business by the Post- 
master-General which I found in force, and which I 
followed, was this. Two bags containing the papers 
requiring the Postmaster- General's decision were sent 
every evening from the General Post Office to his 
private house. The next morning he went through 
the contents of these, and also of the letters which 
arrived hj that day's post, with his private secretaiw, 
giving the necessary orders on each, or referring 
them back to the office for further information. This 



S02 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

generally took from two to three hours. About every 
other day I went to the office from two to four 
o'clock. There were also audiences to be given to 
deputations or individuals on postal matters ; also 
papers to be read which required more mature con- 
sideration. These, with attendance at the House of 
Lords, occupied nearly the whole day. 

On the 4th I walked through the different depart- 
ments of the Post Office with Mr. Rowland Hill, and 
saw the strong chest containing postage stamps to 
the value of 200,000L On the 10th I settled a 
minute for regulating the Dublin office, and talked 
over the state of negotiations for a postal convention 
with Prussia. On the 12th a project of postal con- 
vention arrived from Madrid, and a private letter 
from Lord Howden urging its acceptance. Mr. R. 
Hill had no faith in the Spaniards' sincerity, but we 
resolved to make this an opening for negotiation ; 
and on the 22 nd I signed a letter to the Spanish 
Postmaster- General forwarding a convention project. 
This became the groundwork of future proceedings. 
On April 25th Mr. P. Hill, the second assistant se- 
cretary, suggested that one of our principal clerks 
should proceed to Madrid to assist in settling the 
details ; and Mr. Rae received his instructions and 
directions to start immediately. 

The Spaniards agreed to all our articles except one 
(the sixth), which we gave up ; and on May 22nd we 
received a telegram from Lord Howden (our Minister 
at Madrid) announcing the signature of the con- 
vention. 

On April 6th, I read and compared the drafts pro- 
posed by Mr. E. Hill of postal convention with 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 303 

various States of South America, the general object 
being to introduce a uniform minimum rate of postage 
of one shilling, without any exceptions, and also a book 
post. The Duke of Argyle, before leaving office, had 
directed that Forest Bow should receive its letters 
from East Grinstead, as we had petitioned, and in 
the course of the spring I settled with Mr. Tilley 
(the Assistant-Secretary) that there should be a se- 
cond daily post to Forest Eow, and that a Money 
Order Office should be established there. On April 
15th, I answered Lord Dungannon's questions rela- 
tive to an improved postal communication with Ire- 
land. The relations between the different railway 
companies on the line prevented any arrangement 
at that time, but at the beginning of the following 
year, these difficulties were overcome, and a contract 
for accelerating the Irish mail was signed by the 
Postmaster- G-eneral on one part, and the Railway 
Companies and the Dublin Steam Navigation Com- 
pany on the other, by which it was engaged that the 
mails should be carried from London (Euston Square) 
to Kingstown, in eleven hours. The question of a 
site for the new Post Office at Manchester gave rise to 
several deputations and much correspondence. Dif- 
ferent parties in Manchester proposed different sites, 
and all wished a sum to be expended which we con- 
sidered exorbitant. Upon the whole we decided that 
the one offered in Dalton Street was eligible in posi- 
tion and the most reasonable in point of expense, and 
on June 3rd, we informed the Town Council that we 
had purchased it for 23,000?. ; the Council having 
asked 40,000£. for the site they offered, which was also 
objected to by other parties. The decision in favour 



304 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

of Dalton Street did not satisfy the Town Council, 
and they made new offers of sites. In order to en- 
deavour to come to some conclusion which might 
offer reasonable grounds of satisfaction to all parties, 
Mr. Tilley was directed to proceed to Manchester, 
and in conjunction with the Surveyor of the district, 
Mr. Gay, to view the different sites proposed, and 
to make a report upon them. Upon his return I 
called on the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. G. 
Hamilton), and discussed with him the course to be 
pursued, leaving with him Mr. Tilley's draft minute. 
Early in October, another deputation, headed by the 
members for Manchester, came to me at the Post 
Office ; the interview lasted more than an hour. 
We offered to recommend to the Treasury to give 
40,000?. for sufficient ground on the site of the 
'Queen's Theatre,' with proper approaches. They, 
now being convinced that it was on our part merely 
a question of expense, proceeded to the Treasury to 
try to get better terms. Thus the matter remained 
so long as we continued in office. 

After the change of the Ministry, the new Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) decided 
that they must remain contented with the site pur- 
chased by us in Dalton Street. During this year 
various minor negotiations went on for the purchase 
of district post offices in London, which had lately 
been divided into ten districts, for the double pur- 
pose of accelerating the distribution of letters by 
enabling them to be sent direct from the district in 
which they were posted to that to which they were 
addressed, and of relieving the General Post Office 
from a mass of business, for which a want of space 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 305 

was beginning to be felt. Various ameliorations 
were also gradually made in the country post offices. 
In the beginning of June, Portugal sent to us a pro- 
position for a new Postal Treaty, which Mr. Eowland 
Hill did not consider admissible in the shape offered ; 
and we sent them terms of our own in exchange, and 
Mr. Eae was directed to proceed from Madrid to 
Lisbon to assist in carrying out the details, as he 
had done in the Spanish Treaty. On the 20th of 
July, I received a note from Count Livradio (the Por- 
tuguese Minister in London) requesting an interview 
on the subject of the Treaty. He came the next day, 
and stated the very great objections which his Go- 
vernment felt to agree to the article requiring them 
to give up the exemption (which they now possessed 
by treaty) of their official despatches ; and that he 
feared, if we insisted upon it, the negotiation would 
be broken off, as they viewed it more as a point of 
honour than a question of finance. On the 30th, I 
discussed the question with Mr. Eowland Hill, who 
was rather inclined to abide by his own view, though 
I did not consider it worth while to lose the other 
benefits of the treaty for this small affair, which I did 
not consider it a point of honour to insist on. On 
the 31st I went to the Foreign Office, and saw, first, 
Mr. Hammond (permanent Under-Secretary), and 
Mr. Burns (the clerk who manages questions in 
which the Post Office is concerned), and afterwards 
Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald. Their opinion I found ad- 
verse to giving way. Here the matter rested till the 
following January, when I again took it up with 
Mr. E. Hill; and on the 22nd saw Mr. Seymour 
Fitzgerald at the Foreign Office. On the 9th of 

x 



306 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

February, we had news from Lisbon that the Portu- 
guese Government refused to give up their right to 
exemption from postage in their official correspon- 
dence, but will agree to a further limitation of its 
weight, and also agree to all the other terms of the 
proposed Postal Convention. This satisfied me per- 
fectly ; and suspecting that the delay still continuing 
at the Foreign Office arose from an understanding 
between Mr. R. Hill and Mr. Burn, I determined to 
speak again myself to Lord Malmesbury. This I did 
on the 1st of March, and by his desire forwarded to 
him my opinion in writing, in which I chiefly insisted 
on the inexpediency of risking the loss of the advan- 
tages of our proposed Treaty, when even by doing so 
we should not obtain the desired point, as by the 
Convention made by Lord Canning (when Postmaster- 
General) the Portuguese are entitled to this exemp- 
tion, and would continue to enjoy it if we now broke 
off the negotiations ; whereas, by completing the 
Treaty, they would forego part of what they now 
possess, besides yielding the other advantages which 
we descried. 

This latter had the desired effect ; for on the 4th 
the Foreign Office announced that instructions had 
been sent to Lisbon to our Minister, Mr. Howard, to I 
conclude the Treaty with the concession proposed; 
and on April 7th we learnt by telegraph from Lisbon 
that the Postal Treaty with Portugal was at last 
signed. 

To revert to the summer of 1858. In the end of 
June I had the misfortune to lose my private secre- 
tary, Mr. Scott, who died of a rapid decline. He 
was an active, intelligent officer, and apparently a 



POLITICAL EYEJS T TS, 1853 TO 1859. 307 

powerful young man in the prime of life. About 
Easter he began to complain of a difficulty of 
breathing, and on consulting Dr. Bence Jones, the 
case was considered serious. He, however, continued 
regularly to perform his duties till the middle of 
June, when he went away on a six weeks' leave of 
absence, to take a cruise in the Channel in the yacht 
of a friend ; but he rapidly lost strength, and before 
they had left Plymouth two days became so ill 
that his friend resolved to return for advice, but 
before they reached harbour he expired. 

I appointed in his room Mr. Oldham Barlow, who 
had been for several years an assistant in the private 
office of the Postmaster-General, and who proved a 
very useful secretary. 

On the 10th I received Lord Derby's ' confidential ' 
circular about the Jews' Bill, and on the 30th I wrote 
to him, stating my grounds for being compelled to 
vote against both the proposed bills. On July 12th 
I spoke shortly against the third reading of the bill 
brought on by Lord Lucan, and supported by Lord 
Derby ; having been convinced by Lord Derby's own 
reasoning upon the amendment to the Oaths Bill 
that the concession was wrong in principle ; and, by 
Lord Lansdowne's speech, that it was not demanded 
by expediency. Lord Derby took it in good part, 
and I heard nothing further of it. 

On the 13th I moved the second reading of the 
Edinburgh Post Office Bill, and on the 16th the third 
reading of the Chester and Holyhead Railway Bill, 
by which all obstacles to accelerating the postal 
communication with Dublin were removed. During 
the autumn I was a good deal occupied with the 

x 2 



308 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

alleged grievances of the London letter-carriers; a 
portion of whom complained that they were over- 
worked and underpaid, and that faith had not been 
kept with them in carrying out the reforms in the 
Post Office recommended by the Commissioners of 
Enquiry into Public Offices in 1853 ; when it was an- 
nounced that no one should be put in a worse position 
than he was before the changes. 

Their first overt act was to call a meeting at some 
place in the City, where several hundred letter-car- 
riers attended (the whole number amounts to about 
3,000 in the London districts), and passed resolutions 
embodying their grievances, which were to be laid 
before the Postmaster- General. This proceeding, 
which was contrary to the official order that any one 
having ground of complaint should lay it before his 
immediate superior, alarmed the Secretaries, who 
looked on it as a species of mutiny, and wished to 
treat it accordingly. I, however, considered it better 
to hear first what they had to say for themselves, and 
gave audience to a deputation of five members of 
their Committee; Mr. Tilley and Mr. Bokenham 
(head of the Circulation Office) being also present. 
The interview lasted more than an hour, and they 
went through all the points of their petition; but 
they did not show much more than that the increase 
of numbers of letter-carriers had not kept pace with 
the increase of work, owing to the increased number 
of deliveries of letters. The individual cases of 
grievance they declined to prove, for fear, they said, 
of drawing down the ill-will of the officers of the 
office upon their witnesses. Mr. Tilley drew up an 
answer to the petition, which I approved; and we 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1359. 309 

made application to the Treasury for the means of 
increasing the number of letter-carriers, which they 
granted. At this time also I received a memorial 
from the first-class clerks in the Money Office, re- 
presenting that the promotion in their department 
was much slower than in any other of the Post Office, 
owing to the smaller number of those in the higher 
classes, compared with those in the lower ; and praying 
for some adjustment of the proportions that might 
cure this inequality. After hearing their arguments in 
support of their memorial, I forwarded it to the 
Comptroller of the Money-Order Office (Mr. Jackson), 
who proposed to increase the number of the first- 
class clerks ; but on subsequently showing the papers 
to Mr. E. Hill, he objected that the economy of the 
public service should be considered before the private 
interests of the officers. This, as an abstract pro- 
position, is indisputable ; but the practical question 
arises whether the public service does not suffer by 
keeping back its officers in inferior situations till they 
have lost their energy and zeal. The question was 
therefore referred to a Committee consisting of the 
Comptroller of the Money-Order Office, the Ac- 
countant- General, and one of the Assistant-Secre- 
taries ; and they had not agreed on a report when I 
quitted office. 

In the autumn discontent again broke out among 
the letter-carriers. A meeting of those of the south- 
west district was held at a public-house ; ostensibly to 
ask for an answer from the Postmaster- General to the 
former petition, but really to discuss grievances. This 
meeting being clearly against the regulations of the 
Office, and in defiance of the former warning, I felt 



810 MEMORANDA OF MT LIFE. 

it necessary to have a serious enquiry made into it ; 
in the course of which we discovered that it was not 
confined to the men of the south-west district, but 
was encouraged by the Committee of the malcontents 
who had memorialised in the summer, though they 
at first volunteered to disclaim any connection with 
it. I therefore felt obliged to order the dismissal 
of the man (Martin) who acted as Chairman of this 
meeting, and of another (Carton) who was the leader 
of the general Committee. We also discovered that 
printed papers had been sent to many of the country 
post offices, desiring the clerks to make known any 
grievances they considered they were suffering, and 
to send up subscriptions for obtaining redress. We 
traced these to a person who had been dismissed from 
his situation as a country postmaster. Several of 
these papers were sent to the Comptroller of letter- 
carriers by the persons to whom they had been 
addressed ; and only in one instance produced any ill 
effect, in which case it was necessary to make some 
dismissals. At the same time an address to the dis- 
contented letter-carriers was proposed by Mr. E. 
Hill, setting forth their mistaken views on several 
points, and what had been done to correct real 
grounds of complaint. This, after I had revised it, 
was printed and circulated among the men. It ap- 
peared in the newspapers, most of which, including 
e Daily News,' ' Morning Advertiser,' and 6 Telegraph,' 
approved of it ; the only hostile paper was the c Civil 
Service Gazette,' which never lost any opportunity 
of reviling Mr. R. Hill (and all the Hills) with gross 
scurrility, both in prose and verse. It kindly under- 
took to believe that the Postmaster-General would 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 311 

not be guilty of such oppressive conduct unless he 
was deceived by his subordinates. Mr. Hill also pro- 
posed a plan for improving the position of the gene- 
ral body of the letter-carriers, which was approved 
by the Treasury on November 24th ; and on the 27th 
an address from 460 carriers was presented to the 
Inspector (Mr. Kelly), disavowing the persons who 
professed to receive subscriptions for redressing their 
grievances. Thus terminated this very disgraceful 
business. On December 22nd, at the urgent desire 
of Mr. E. Hill, I signed a minute for making com- 
pulsory the prepayment of all letters. The question 
had been agitated before I came into office, and the 
Duke of Argyle had left the papers in his office as 
not decided on. I had also deferred giving my sanc- 
tion, considering that though the measure would be 
generally beneficial, there might be cases of emer- 
gency when the delay of a letter from want of pre- 
payment might cause serious loss to individuals ; but 
Mr. Hill overcame my objections, and the order was 
issued. 

During this year I suffered considerably from the 
swelling of my left leg, which crippled my power 
of locomotion. As far back as our tour on the Con- 
tinent in 1856, I had felt a weakness in my left 
ancle ; and on our return Mr. Taylor, of Brighton, 
had recommended me to wear an elastic stocking, 
which advice I followed ; but the leg not improving, 
in the spring of 1857, I consulted Dr. Watson, who 
recommended that the elastic stocking should be ex- 
tended above the knee, but did not advise physic 
or change in my usual diet. The leg continued 
much the same, till on February 19th, 1858, after 
walking home in a very sharp easterly wind and 



312 MEMOKANDA OF MY LIFE. 

frost, the swelling suddenly increased considerably. 
On the 30th, we went down to Brighton, and re- 
turned to London on April 10th, when I resumed 
my official visits to the Post Office, Patriotic Fund, 
and House of Lords, and was able on the 22nd to 
attend Her Majesty's drawing-room. After this, 
several of the most eminent doctors and surgeons 
were consulted, who agreed in recommending gentle 
friction by a professional rubber, which I adopted, 
and think it is the only thing I have tried that has 
been of real use, except the mineral waters I had 
recourse to in 1859. 

On February 13th, we went down to Eton, to 
visit you on your birthday, and had a very satis- 
factory conversation with Mr. Birch respecting you. 
On the 23rd, you announced to us that you had got 
into the upper fifth form, second in trials, and that 
you had been ' sent up for good ;' and on the 26th 
you came home, first in collections, and third in 
French, thus terminating your Eton career with 
some eclat. In April, I settled with Mr. Yonge that 
he should come to you three times a week, and that 
he should go about with you, as well as teach you 
classics; you were to continue your drill lessons, 
and also to attend to History and German, which fell 
chiefly within your mother's department. On June 
2nd, you were confirmed (at St. George's Church) by 
the Bishop of London, having undergone a previous 
course of preparation by the Rev. Evan Nepean, the 
clergyman of our district. On the 7th, you com- 
menced mathematics with Mr. T. Cook, of Lincoln's 
Inn, and attended a course of lectures at the Royal 
Institution, on the Italian Eepublics. In January, 



313 

William T. Law started for tlie United States of North 
America, to take care of some coal mines in Mary- 
land, belonging to Lady Stafford. In February, 
Henry Law came to England to be private secretary 
to Lord Ellenborough, and on May 26th, returned 
to his family at Geneva. Isabella Eamsden was this 
year married to Mr. Richard Oliver. On July 24th, 
my old bailiff, Henry Padgham, died, having held 
that situation in the family since 1828. 

On January 1st, 1859, the Emperor of the French, 
at the usual reception of the Corps Diplomatique on 
that day, to receive their address of congratulation, 
made those memorable remarks to the Austrian Am- 
bassador on the conduct of his Court which startled all 
Europe, and proved the forerunner of that war which, 
before the close of the ensuing summer, changed the 
political features of northern Italy, and, later, of the 
whole peninsula, with the exception of Rome and 
Venice. A French garrison had held Rome ever since 
1849 ; the Piedmontese encouraged the discontented 
Lombards in their attempts to raise Lombardy and 
Venetia against Austria. The Austrians, on the other 
hand, occupied the city of Ferrara and several places 
in the Papal Legations contrary to treaty ; and the 
Pope exclaimed against them and the French as inva- 
ders of his dominions. Here ample fuel for war, and 
diplomacy was immediately set to work to prevent a 
conflagration. England, in particular, urged the as- 
sembling of a Congress to settle the questions in dis- 
pute, and at one moment appeared on the point of suc- 
ceeding, but the revolution in Tuscany, when the 
people obliged the Grand Duke (a Prince of the 
House of Austria) to retire from his dominions, and 



S14 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

declared the King of Sardinia Dictator of Tuscany, 
broke down the patience of Austria ; and the 
Austrian army crossed the Ticino on May 4th, with 
the apparent intention of occupying Turin before the 
French army could arrive to its relief: but owing, as 
was said, to the impassable state of the roads, and 
the badness of the weather, they halted upon the 
banks of the Sesia. On the 10th the Emperor of the 
French left Paris to put himself at the head of e the 
army in Italy,' declaring the Empress, Regent during 
his absence. On the 21st General Forrey repulsed 
an Austrian corps near Montebeilo. Garibaldi, ad- 
vancing from Arona, drove the Austrians from Yarese 
and Como. The Sardinian army, under the personal 
command of the King, forced the passage of the 
Sesia, and repulsed an attempt of the Austrians to 
drive them back; and the French General, Niel, 
entered Novara. At this time the King of Naples 
died. On June 4th the French army crossed the 
Ticino and defeated the Austrians at Magenta. On 
the 8th the Emperor of the French and the King of 
Sardinia entered Milan, the Austrians evacuated 
Favia, and on the 13th Piacenza, and retired beyond 
the Adda. The French attacked the Austrian rear- 
guard at Marignano, which they carried, after an 
obstinate resistance. On the 28th was fought the 
great battle of Solferino; after which the French 
crossed the Mincio, and the Sardinians invested 
Peschiera. On July 9th an armistice till August 
loth was concluded; and on the 12th the two Em- 
perors met at Yilla Franca, and agreed to terms of 
peace. Austria to cede Lombardy and to hold 
Yenetia as part of the Italian Confederation; the 



1853 TO 1859. 315 

small Italian Princes to return to tlier dominions. 
On October 19th the Treaty of Peace was signed at 
Zurich. 

In the month of July died Donna Maria da Gloria, 
Queen of Portugal ; and Oscar, King of Sweden. 

Parliament was opened on February 3rd by the 
Queen in person. Lord Winchelsea moved, and Lord 
Eavensworth seconded, the address in the House of 
Lords. No amendment was moved. On the 7th, 
the Chancellor brought in his bill for improving the 
law of Debtor and Creditor. On the 14th, a question 
by Lord Wodehouse on the correspondence with the 
United States of North America on the right of 
search brought on a debate. Lord Malmesbury's 
view of arranging the question, by special convention, 
seemed to be approved of, but the higher tone taken 
by Lord Aberdeen in recalling the past conduct of 
England pleased me better. 

On the 22nd, the Duke of Argyle enquired the 
reasons for issuing the post-office order for compul- 
sory prepayment of inland letters. I answered, ex- 
plaining the grounds which appeared to me to warrant 
it. Lord Granville followed, expressing himself 
unsatisfied with my explanation ; and the Duke of 
Eichmond and Lord Campbell also spoke, deprecating 
the change. Mr. Eich's motion in the House of 
Commons on the same subject was postponed for a 
fortnight ; the objections made were chiefly that the 
present system had acted well, and that persons con- 
fined in prisons or workhouses would have difficulty 
in communicating with their friends for want of 
the means of providing the stamps for the prepay- 
ment. These objections seemed to be capable of 



£16 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

being met in practice. Mr. Hill thought that he 
had sufficient friends among the Radicals in the House 
of Commons who would support the Government on 
this occasion to defeat Mr. Rich's motion. However, 
on the 24th, Mr. Hill brought me a note from the 
Treasury recommending the abandonment of the plan, 
as it appeared so unpopular, Mr. Hill concurring in 
this recommendation. I wrote to the Treasury, 
officially, requesting a fresh warrant to recall that 
lately issued ; and the same evening, in the House of 
Lords, I took advantage of Lord Monteagle's motion 
for copy of warrant establishing the compulsory pre- 
payment to announce that the plan was abandoned 
in deference to the expression of public feeling 
against it. 

On Monday, February 21st, in the House of 
Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. 
Disraeli) opened the Eeform Bill of the Government, 
the great question upon which the continued existence 
of the Parliament and the Ministry would depend. 
Lord Derby, on taking office, had promised to produce 
a measure on this subject, and during the late recess 
a committee of the Cabinet had been preparing the 
details of the measure which was now to be laid before 
Parliament; its principal feature was the reducing 
the county qualification to a 101. holding, leaving the 
borough qualification at 101. as before, but depriving 
householders within a parliamentary borough of any 
vote for the county on account of such holding. 
Various new qualifications for the borough franchise 
were introduced with a view of giving votes to classes 
of persons well entitled to such privilege, although 
not inhabitants of a 107. house. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 317 

On the Saturday evening previous, at Lady Salis- 
bury's party, Mrs. Henley told me that her husband 
and Mr. Spencer Walpole had resigned, because the 
bill went too far for them ; but this was not generally 
known till the morning of the debate. Mr. Walpole 
was succeeded, as Secretary for the Home Depart- 
ment, by Mr. Sotheron-Estcourt, President of the 
Poor-Law Board ; and Mr. Henley by Lord Donough- 
more ; Lord March and Lord Lovaine replacing Mr. 
Estcourt and Lord Donoughmore. 

Mr. Disraeli's opening speech was received by the 
House of Commons i with silent attention,' but the 
reception was considered favourable. 

Lord John Russell and the Radical party announced 
their intention to oppose its progress. Lord Palmer- 
ston reserved his opinion. On the following morning 
Lord Derby had a meeting of Conservative M.P.'s 
at his house : all present declared their readiness to 
accept the bill as a necessity. On March 5th, Lord 
Derby had a meeting of the Peers of his party, when 
he explained at length the provisions of the bill, and 
the reasons for producing it in its present shape. 

About this date, Lord Hardinge resigned the Under- 
Secretaryship of War, and was succeeded by Lord 
Roslyn ; his retirement was, I believe, entirely from 
private causes. 

On March 14th, there appeared in the ' Globe ' a 
letter from Lord Grey to Lord Elcho condemning the 
mode proposed by Lord John Russell of throwing out 
the Reform Bill by moving an abstract resolution on 
the motion for second reading of the bill. Several sec- 
tions of the Radicals were said to take the same view. 
Lord Palmerston's conduct still remained doubtful. 



318 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

On the 21st (Monday), the second reading of the 
Reform Bill was moved. Lord John Russell inter- 
posed his resolutions. He was answered by Lord 
Stanley. The debate was then adjourned, and con- 
tinued from day to day (Wednesday excepted) till 
Friday evening, and then adjourned again to Monday 
(28th). 

Lord Salisbury had told me, before the opening of 
the debate, that if Lord John's resolutions should be 
carried, Government will withdraw their bill, and 
consider what step they should take next, which 
means they would dissolve Parliament. 

On the 29th, Lord Campbell's bill for empowering 
juries in civil causes to decide by a majority of nine 
to three was negatived on motion for second reading 
by 23 against 7. 

At 2 a.m. of Friday, April 1st, the debate on the 
second reading of the Reform Bill closed, Lord John 
Russell's resolutions being adopted by 830 against 
291. Up to the previous evening the reports as to 
the result varied from twenty in favour to five against 
the resolutions. On the result of the division being 
announced, Disraeli moved that the House should 
adj ourn till the following Monday. On the day follow- 
ing the division it was reported that Lord Derby had 
waited on the Queen, who refused to receive his re- 
signation. 

In the House of Lords the Duke of Argyle put off 
his motion on Indian education ( in the state of 
affairs,' which was received with much cheering and 
laughter ; and Lord Stanley of Alderley, who was 
called on next, put his question about admission 
of salt in China amidst still more laughter and cheer- 



1853 TO 1859. 319 

ing. Lord Derby, on moving the adjournment, said 
that as the House of Commons had adjourned till 
Monday, he should defer all explanation till that day. 

On Monday (4th) Lord Derby, in a speech of one 
hour and a half, commented on the decision of the 
House of Commons on Friday last, and concluded by 
stating that Parliament would be dissolved as soon as 
the indispensable business was gone through. On the 
8th I presented the fifth (annual) report on the Post 
Office. On the 11th Lord Monteagle attacked the 
legality of the contract for accelerating the Irish 
Mail because it was ' to be paid out of the revenue of 
the Post Office,' instead of out of the * general re- 
venue ' of the country. The question depended upon 
the construction of Mr. Gladstone's Act, and after 
taking the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, 
the contract was amended on this point, in accord- 
ance with Lord Monteagle 's view. On the 14th 
Lord Derby moved a vote of thanks to the Governor- 
General of India, and the military officers and troops, 
for their suppressing the rebellion in India. 

On the 18th we had a discussion in the House of 
Lords on foreign policy. Lord Malmesbury detailed 
the negotiations for settling the affairs of Italy ; the 
four bases proposed by England had been agreed 
to by the other great Powers. But the question 
of disarmament previous to the meeting of a Con- 
gress remained still undecided. Lord Clarendon 
followed in a very temperate speech ; and Lord 
Derby closed the discussion with a further exposition 
of the state of the question, and a fervent hope that 
no nation would dare to commence a war, the extent 
and termination of which no one could foresee ; that 



320 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

if the counsels of England were not attended to she 
must hold herself aloof, but prepared to take any part 
which her honour might demand. Parliament sepa- 
rated that evening for the Easter holidays, and was 
immediately after dissolved. 

We went down to Tunbridge Wells (Somerset 
House) on the 19th, and remained there till May 
12th; during which period the elections were going 
on, and I received constant telegrams from the 
General Post Office of the result of the polls. On 
May 14th 636 Members had been returned, of whom 
301 might be considered Ministerial, and 335 Oppo- 
sition ; enough to show the probable future. On May 
31 st I took my seat in the House of Lords in the new 
Parliament ; and the new form of oath was adminis- 
tered, omitting all mention of King James the Se- 
cond and his descendants, who have been long 
extinct. 

On June 7th Parliament was opened by the Queen 
in person. In the House of Lords the address in 
answer to the Queen's speech was moved by Lord 
Powis, and seconded by Lord Lifford. A debate en- 
sued, in which Lords Granville, Carlisle, Eglinton, 
Duke of Argyle, Lord Brougham, and Lord Ellen - 
borough took part, but no amendment was made. 
In the House of Commons Lord Hartington moved as 
an amendment to the address a vote of want of confi- 
dence in the Ministers, on account of their conduct 
generally, and especially in the management of foreign 
affairs, by which they had allowed the peace of Eu- 
rope to be broken (and this, before the correspondence 
had been laid before Parliament). The debate was 
continued through the 9th and 10th, and at two a.m. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 321 

on the 11th (Saturday) the House divided, when there 
were for the amendment 325 votes, including tellers, 
against 312; leaving the Ministers in a minority of 
13. Lord Derby at once tendered his resignation, 
but it was not known till Monday (13 th) who the 
Queen had sent for to form a new Government. It was 
then known that Her Majesty had first sent for Lord 
Granville, but that Lord John Russell refused to serve 
under any one except Lord Palmerston, and he was 
sent for and was now forming a Government. 

"Various lists were circulated, one on the authority 
of Sir W. Hayter, the former Whig Secretary to the 
Treasury. The Radical party were dissatisfied with 
the small share there given to them. On the fol- 
lowing day fresh lists were circulated, including the 
names of Gladstone and Lord Elgin ; but Parliament 
having adjourned for the Whitsun holidays, nothing 
certain could be ascertained. 

On Thursday the 16th it was announced that Lord 
Palmerston would submit his new Cabinet to the 
Queen on Saturday (18th), but nothing was positively 
known as to particular offices. Lord Elgin was 
spoken of as the new Postmaster-General. On Fri- 
day the 17th Parliament met after the holidays, and 
Lord Derby announced that he was out of office. 
The Lords then adjourned to the following Tuesday 
(21st). On that day parties took their new sides of 
the House, but no Ministers were present. Lord 
Redesdale took the Woolsack, as deputy Speaker, 
and adjourned the House till the following Thursda} r , 
with the understanding that it would then adjourn 
again till Thursday week (30th). Thus terminated 
Lord Derby's second administration, and great were 

Y 



322 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the rejoicings of the Whigs and Radicals at its fall. 
But the defeated party were not without their con- 
solation. The Queen expressed her opinion of the 
merits of the fallen administration by making Lord 
Derby an extra knight of the Garter, and conferring 
on his Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Lord Malmes- 
bury) the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. 

On June 30th, when Lord Granville announced to 
the House of Lords the intention of the new Govern- 
ment to maintain a strict neutrality between the 
belligerents, and to keep up our own armaments 
(almost the same words used by Lord Derby in April), 
Lord Malmesbury showed from the despatches in the 
Blue-book now laid before Parliament that the late 
Government had taken the precise steps, for not taking 
which, Lord Palmerston, in the House of Commons, 
had said that they deserved dismissal. Lord Claren- 
don also (who had been Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 
and represented England at the Congress of Paris in 
1856) at a later period expressed his opinion of the 
propriety of Lord Malmesbury's policy; and with 
regard to internal policy the Government of Lord 
Palmerston did not venture to carry through a new 
Reform Bill, but in 1863, Lord John Russell (then 
Earl Russell) at a political dinner given to him in 
Scotland, told his followers that they should follow 
the recommendation of the inscription of General 
Wade, placed on the summit of the Pass of Glen- 
coe, to ■ rest and be thankful.' 

The only business of consequence at the Post Office 
during the first six months of this year (besides those 
already mentioned), which was brought to a conclu- 
sion, was a Postal Convention with Hamburgh and 
Bremen, which was signed at the General Post Office 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 323 

on the 20th of June by Mr. Sucker, the Minister of 
the Hans Towns. We had, however, further cor- 
respondence on the Treaty of Brazil, and on the 
Jamaica Post Office; deputations from the Australian 
Colonies as to their mails ; and a question of giving 
the stipulated notice to the United States for termi- 
nating the existing Postal Convention, with a view of 
negociating a more favourable one, as the United 
States have hitherto only considered their Post Office 
as the means of raising a revenue, and their charges 
are consequently very high, and no extension en- 
couraged which would not ensure a profit. Upon 
this we communicated with the Foreign Office to 
know their views politically, and they did not en- 
courage our moving in it. On the 13th of June, 
after the adverse division in the House of Commons, 
T had a conversation at the General Post Office with 
Mr. Hiil on the state of business, and continued to 
transact business there as usual till my successor was 
appointed. Mr. Tilley was very desirous that the 
official change should not take place before the 30th, 
on account of the transfer of money accounts, and 
the patent for the new Postmaster- General usually 
requires a fortnight to complete. On the 18th, I 
wrote to Lord Elgin, who had been named as my 
successor, recommending to him Mr. 0. Barlow as 
private secretary, on account of his steadiness and 
long experience in the business of the office. I re- 
ceived the same evening a reply desiring Mr. Barlow 
to call on him, and on the 20th Lord Elgin promised 
to appoint him as his private secretary. On the 24th, 
I went to the Post Office to present the heads of de- 
partments to Lord Elgin, and then took my final 

y2 



324 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

leave of it. The following day Mr. Barlow came to 
Berkeley Square as usual; we finished our business 
at 12.15 ; and after luncheon he took leave, closing 
my official connection with the Post Office, though I 
remained legally Postmaster- General till my succes- 
sor's patent was sealed. Before leaving this subject 
I should add, that in May Mr. Hill made to me a 
suggestion for raising a Volunteer Rifie Corps among 
the officers of the Post Office. I concurred in the 
general view, and wrote to General Peel, the Secre- 
tary of State, to know what assistance might be 
hoped from the War Office if the Post Office Volun- 
teers were enrolled. Our chief object was to have 
the arms supplied by Government; but General Peel 
told me afterwards that there was not a sufficient 
supply of rifles for the army and militia, and there- 
fore they could not at present furnish any to volun- 
teers ; so the matter dropped for the time. 

On Monday, January 24th, your mother and myself 
received Her Majesty's commands to dine on Tuesday 
(the next day) at Windsor Castle, and remain till 
Thursday. We had accordingly to put off all our 
own engagements for those days, and on the Tuesday 
went down by the 5 p.m. train to Windsor. On 
reaching the Castle we were shown at once to our 
apartments, consisting of a bedroom and dressing- 
room, and a small sitting-room between them, all 
looking: into the Park. At eight o'clock we were 
ushered by a page along the great gallery to the 
drawing-room, where we found the Duke and 
Duchess of Richmond and their daughter, Lady 
Cecilia Gordon Lennox. About a quarter past eight 
the Queen and Prince entered the room, and we then 



1853 TO 1859. 325 

proceeded straight to dinner, the etiquette being the 
same as in London. The Duchess of Kent was the 
only other visitor at dinner, Lord Crofton and Lady 
Desart the Lord and Lady-in- Waiting. I was desired 
to hand in the Princess Alice, and sate between her 
and the Queen. Her Majesty was very gracious, 
and talked a good deal. On Wednesday morning we 
attended chapel at nine o'clock, and then breakfasted 
with the Lady -in- Waiting in her apartment. Prince 
Albert went out shooting, and it was proposed to the 
gentlemen to accompany him; but being unable from 
my lameness, I drove with the Duke of Eichmond in 
one of the Eoyal pony carriages, with four horses and 
outriders, to see ' the Flemish Farm,' where Prince 
Albert is introducing the latest improvements in agri- 
cultural buildings, &c. The ladies walked through 
the State apartments, and afterwards to Frogmore. 
We had luncheon with the Lady-in- Waiting ; soon 
after which, the Queen sent word she had no orders 
for the gentlemen, who then dispersed ; and, shortly 
afterwards, the Queen brought the Eoyal children 
into the gallery to talk to the ladies. Lord and Lady 
Donoughmore arrived at the Castle to-day. At 
dinner this day I took in Lady Cecilia Lennox, and 
sate between her and the Duchess of Eichmond, op- 
posite to the Queen. Lord Colville was the Equerry- 
in-Waiting, and Miss Stanley and Miss Stopford the 
Maids of Honour. On the Thursday we attended 
chapel, and breakfasted with the Lady-in- Waiting, 
as the day before, and then returned to London by 
the 10.10 a.m. train. 

The change of Ministry having set me free to 
spend my time as I pleased, I determined to follow 



326 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

the advice given me in January by Sir Charles 
Locock, and try the effect of the mud baths of 
Marienbad, in Bohemia, upon my leg. I first took 
the precaution of consulting Dr. Weber, the great 
authority on German waters ; and as he considered 
that they could at any rate do no harm, and Dr. 
Watson concurred in this view, we commenced the 
preparations for our visit to Germany in the begin- 
ning of July by engaging Mr. Yonge to accompany 
us as your tutor and companion in your walks. We 
next engaged as a courier G. Kopp, a native of 
Wurtzburg ; and having completed all our prepara- 
tions, we started on the 1st of August, crossing over 
from Dover to Calais, and sleeping the first night 
at Ghent ; thence we proceeded, via Brussels, Aix-la- 
Chapelle, and Coblentz, to Erankfort-on-the-Maine, 
and thence to Wurtzburg and Hof, where we quitted 
the railway, and hired a carriage to Marienbad, 
where we arrived on the 9th, having halted one 
day (Sunday, 7th) at Wurtzburg. We remained at 
Marienbad till the 14th of September, by which time 
nearly all the visitors had left the place. 

During our stay I underwent a regular course of 
waters in every form, under the care of Dr. Herzig, 
the Government physician, drinking the Kreuz- 
brunnen before breakfast, taking mud baths before 
dinner, and having mud poultices applied in the even- 
ing. There was hardly any society, I may say none 
whatever, and being unable to take much exercise, I 
was heartily glad when we got into our hired carriage 
to proceed to Carlsbad, and so through Teplitz to 
Aussig, on the Elbe, where we took the rail for 
Prague, ascending the course of the Elbe and Moldau. 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 327 

We reached this ancient capital of Bohemia on the 
16th, and remained till the 19th, when we turned our 
faces homeward, retracing* our steps as far as Aus- 
sig, and then proceeding through the singular scenery 
of Saxon Switzerland to Dresden. Here we halted 
three days to view the Picture Galleries, c the Green 
Vaults,' and other collections of art in this city, which 
is also worth visiting for its public buildings, includ- 
ing the bridges over the Elbe, and for its fine situa- 
tion. From Dresden we proceeded through Leipsic, 
Weimar, Hesse Cassel, Dortmund, and Dusseldorf to 
Aix-la-Chapelle, where we struck upon the road by 
which we had gone to Marienbad, and followed it to 
Calais. 

On September 29th we arrived safely in Berkeley 
Square, much pleased with our tour, of the details of 
which you will find an account in a separate Diary. 
The Marienbad treatment certainly strengthened me, 
and I have since gradually been able to take more 
walking exercise, and occasionally to ride a pony. 

On October 11th, we all went down to Oxford in 
order to your being entered at the University. I pre- 
sented you the same evening to the Dean of Christ 
Church, who appointed Mr. Osborne Gordon, the 
senior censor, to be your tutor, and he showed us the 
rooms intended for you. The following morning you 
underwent your probationary examination in Christ 
Church Hall, and your construing of Homer was much 
approved by the Dean. 

In the afternoon, Mr. Gordon took you to the Yice- 
Chancellor to be matriculated, and thus having been 
duly admitted a member of the University and of 
Christ Church, you returned with us the following day 



328 MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE. 

to London. On the 22nd we went down to Brighton 
and hired No. 63 Begency Square for a month. While 
there, Mr. Catlin sent me, on view, his portraits of 
North American Indians, of fifty different tribes, 
drawn by himself on the spot. I also corrected and 
returned to Mons. de Busnes his notice of my life, to 
appear in the ' Pantheon biographique. 5 

On December 13th, we went to Hatfield for two 
nights on a visit to Lord and Lady Salisbury; and 
on the 20th, we went to Tatton to spend our Christ- 
mas with Lord and Lady Egerton. On our way there, 
we stopped one day at Oxford to settle your rooms 
and furniture, so that you might commence your 
residence at the commencement of the term, after the 
Christmas vacation ; and on the 28th, we engaged as 
your college servant Osborne Grey, who remained 
with you during the whole four years of your career 
as an undergraduate. 

In March of this year, your uncle, William Law, 
returned from the United States of North America ; 
he was very desirous to obtain the post of British 
Consul at Baltimore. I wrote to Lord Malmesbury, 
who replied that it was already promised, but offered 
to William the Consulship of Maranham, which he 
declined on account of the insurances on his life. In 
April, his son Victor took leave of us on proceeding 
to Madras, having obtained a cavalry cadetship in 
that Presidency ; he was, on arriving, posted to the 
same regiment in which Henry Dyneley was serving. 
In May, the Henry Laws returned to England from 
their sojourn in Italy. 

Having thus brought down my narrative to the 
period when you assumed the ' Toga Yirilis,' and 



POLITICAL EVENTS, 1853 TO 1859. 329 

became capable, by mixing in society, of forming your 
own opinion on events and the actors in them, I shall 
here bring it to a close, hoping that it may afford 
yon some amusement to trace the various scenes and 
events through which your father passed in the course 
of half a century of great historical changes; and, 
perhaps, at some future period, when he shall have 
passed away from this scene, interest those who may 
be then the inheritors of his name, and enable you to 
relate to yoiu? children the adventures of their grand- 
father and his contemporaries. 

COLCHESTEE. 

Brighton : 
November 30, 1864. 



LONDON: PRINTED BY 

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 

AND PARLIAMENT STREET 



APPENDIX 



TO 



MEMORANDA OF MY LIFE 



BY 



ADMIRAL 

CHAELES LOED COLCHESTEE 



NOT PUBLISHED 



LONDON 

PRINTED BY 

SPOTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE, FARRINGDON STREET 

AND 30 PARLIAMENT STREET, WESTMINSTER 

1871 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Dedication — Letter to Reginald Charles Edward Lord 

Colchester /> . . . v 

1. Plan for Intercepting the (treat Internal Water Com- 

munication BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE 
Empire of China, drawn up by Lord Colchester 
(November, 1839). . . . . . 1 

2. Letter from Sir George Staunton to Lord Colchester 

(February 3, 1840) . . . . . .13 

3. Lord Colchester to Lord Palmerston (February 7, 1840) 14 

4. Lord Palmerston to Lord Colchester (February 7, 1840) 15 

5. Lord Colchester to Lord Aberdeen (September 20, 1841) 16 

6. Lord Aberdeen to Lord Colchester (September 25, 1811) 17 
Preface to Extracts from Lord Ellenborough's Letters 19 

7. Extract of Letter from Lord Ellenborough to Lord 

Colchester (Government House, Calcutta, March 6, 1842) 21 

8. Lord Ellenborough to Lady Colchester (Allahabad, 

May 31, 1842) ...... 21 

9. Lord Ellenborough to Lord Colchester (Allahabad, 

July 7, 1842) ...... 22 

10. Lord Ellenborough to Lady Colchester (Meerut, August 

31, 1842) . 23 

11. Lord Ellenborough to Lord Colchester (Simla, October 

17, 1842) ....... 23 

12. Lord Ellenborough to Lord Colchester, enclosing Sir 

Hugh Gough's Letter (Camp, three marches north of 
Delhi, February 2, 1843) . . . . .24 

A 2 



To Reginald Charles Edward Lord Colchester, 



May 17, 1871. 



My dearest Beglnald 



Ever since I printed for private circulation the 
memoranda of yonr dear father's life, which he wrote 
for your information, I have always regretted that I 
did not add to it, in the form of an appendix, the 
plan which he drew up in the autumn of 1839 (when 
a war with China appeared imminent) for intercepting 
the Great Internal Water Communication between 
the north and south of that empire, by sending a 
fleet up the Yang-tse-kiang, and which, at the sug- 
gestion of Sir George Staunton, he forwarded at once 
to Lord Palmerston, then Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs. On the change of Government in 1841, he 
sent it again to Lord Aberdeen, the new Foreign 
Secretary, and it was at length adopted, with most 
successful results, by your uncle Ellenborough, as 
soon as he was appointed Governor- General of India. 1 
By him reinforcements were sent, on March 6, 1842, 
to Sir Hugh Gough and Sir William Parker, with 

1 See Memoranda of My Life, pp. 81, 82, 99, 106, 107. 



VI DEDICATION. 

instructions to proceed at once to the Yang-tse- 
kiang, and forwarding to them your father's plans, 
and his survey of the river, made originally at Lord 
Amherst's desire in 1816. Sir Hugh G-ough and 
Sir William Parker, having acted at once upon these 
instructions, peace was signed at Nankin, before 
the later instructions from the Home Government 
(which directed them to the Pei-ho) had reached 
them. As these events occurred thirty years ago, 
and may be no longer fresh in the recollection of my 
readers, I have thought that it might interest them, 
and throw some light on the subject, if I added a few 
extracts from letters of your uncle Ellenborough 
and others, connected with these by-gone trans- 
actions, selected out of a mass of correspondence, 
which I have arranged in order, leaving it to your 
discretion to decide, if any of it, at some future 
period, should be given to the public. 

Your very affectionate mother, 

Elizabeth S. Colchester. 



A PLAN FOR INTERCEPTING 

THE 

GREAT WATEE COMMUNICATION 

BETWEEN THE 

NORTH and SOUTH of the EMPIRE of CHINA. 

DRAWN UP IN THE AUTUMN OE 1839 
BY 

CHAELES LOED COLCHESTEE, E.K 



The Empire of China producing within its own. 
limits all that is requisite for the food and clothing 
of its population, and also most of the articles con- 
ducive to the comforts and luxuries of life, its in- 
habitants do not feel dependent on foreign commerce, 
and the Government has discouraged intercourse 
with other independent nations. 

A blockade of the coasts of China by a hostile 
force would therefore be scarcely felt by the nation 
at large, and even predatory descents on its maritime 
towns, although they might produce much local 
mischief, would not materially impair the revenue 
of the Government or interfere with the usual habits 
of the people. But as the produce of the various 
climates contained within the bounds of that vast 
territory is conveyed to its capital, and distributed 



2 PLAN FOR INTERCEPTING 

through, its different provinces chiefly by one great 
line of internal communication, by which also the 
revenues levied in kind (viz., corn, rice, salt, &c.) 
are transmitted to the imperial depots ; if this com- 
munication could be intercepted, great loss must 
ensue to the Government, as well as such privation 
to all classes of the people, as would speedily induce 
them to submit to any reasonable terms on which 
they might regain their usual supplies. To suggest 
a method by which this object might be attempted 
with a force not exceeding the means of this country, 
and with a fair prospect of success, and little risk in 
case of failure from unforeseen causes, is the object 
of this paper ; but in order to render the proposed 
operations intelligible, it may be requisite first to 
describe the chief line of commercial communication, 
extending from the neighbourhood of Pekin, in about 
lat. 40° N. to Canton in 23^°, a direct distance of 1,000 
miles from north to south. This communication^ 
with the exception of one day's journey across the* 
mountains, dividing the province of Kiang-See from 
that of Quan-tong (Canton) is a Water Communi- 
cation. 

It commences from the north at the city of Tong- 
choo-foo, from thence descending the Eiver Pei-ho 
to its junction with the Eu-ho at the city of Tien- 
sing, thence it ascends the Eu-ho to the city of 
Lin-sin-choo (in lat. 37°). Here commences the 
Imperial Canal, by which the communication is 
carried on (crossing the Yellow Eiver in lat. 33 J°) 
as far as the city of Kwa-choo on the great river 
Yang-tse-kiang. It then ascends that river, passing 
the city of Nankin, above 290 miles, to the mouth of 



THE GEEAT WATEE COMMUNICATION, ETC. 3 

the river issuing from the Poyang Lake. This latter 
it follows, crossing the Poyang Lake, and from the 
southern border ascends the Kang-kiang to the city 
of Ean-gan-foo, situate at the northern foot of the 
Mee-ling Mountains, which is crossed by a single 
day's journey, and then descends the river of Canton 
to that city. 

This is the route followed by Lord Amherst's 
embassy, and most of the early travellers (E"iew-hoff, 
&c), but Lord Macartney's embassy diverged from 
Kwa-choo, crossing the Yang-tse-kiang, and pro- 
ceeding along the Imperial Canal to the city of Hang- 
choo-foo at the south termination of the canal, and 
near a navigable river falling into the sea behind the 
Chusan Islands in lat. 80^°. From Hang-choo-foo 
the embassy proceeded by small and shallow rivers, 
and across a dividing ridge till they regained the 
great route a little to the south of the Poyang Lake. 
The northern portion of this line of communication 
between the 40th and 33rd degrees of latitude is 
accessible from the sea by three navigable rivers, the 
Pei-ho, Whang-ho or Yellow Eiver, and the Yang- 
tse-kiang, and the points where these rivers intersect 
the line naturally become great depots of merchan- 
dise, and stations where the trading vessels accumu- 
late in large numbers, either to discharge cargoes, or 
await the favourable moment for proceeding on their 
voyages. At Tien-sing, built at the confluence of 
Pei-ho and Eu-ho, the numerous pyramids of salt, 
and the innumerable vessels, particularly those laden 
with corn 1 from different provinces, forming part of 

1 The number of corn-junks moored along the bank of the river, which 
■were passed during the first day's voyage up the Pei-ho above Tien-sing, 



4 PLAN FOR INTERCEPTING 

the imperial revenue, are noticed in the accounts of 
the two British embassies of Lord Macartney and 
Lord Amherst. 1 Near the village of Yang-chuan, 
where the Yellow River intersects the Imperial 
Canal, great numbers of grain junks and smaller 
vessels laden with materials for keeping the embank- 
ments in repair, were seen by Lord Amherst's em- 
bassy ; and the cities of Yang-choo-foo and Tchin- 
kiang-foo, the first built on the edge of the Imperial 
Canal a few miles north, and the latter to the south 
of the point where it is intersected by the Yang- 
tse-kiang, are great commercial cities. Barrow 2 
speaks of seeing at least 1,000 vessels under the 
walls of Yang-choo-foo, and of c fleets of vessels ' in 
the canal south of the river. 

The Dutch Embassy 3 in its return was delayed 
three days in crossing the Yang-tse-kiang, by the 
numbers of rice junks in the canal on the south side. 

From these accounts some idea may be formed of 
the ruinous consequences which would ensue from 
the occupation of one or more of these points by a 
hostile force, and I shall endeavour to show the 
facilities offered by the navigation of these rivers for 
the accomplishment of such a design by any power 
having the command of the sea, also the obstacles to 
be encountered, so far as our knowledge of the nature 
of the country and the military resources of the 
Government enable us to form an opinion. 

The Pei-ho, after uniting its waters with those of 

was calculated at 1,640 by counting the number passed in ten minutes. 
—MS. Journal, 1816. 

1 Staunton's Embassy, quarto edition, vol. ii. p. 20-23. Ellis, p. 85- 
105. 

2 Barrow's China, p. 516. 

8 Van Braam, Account of Dutch Embassy. 



THE GREAT WATER COMMUNICATION, ETC. 5 

the Eu-ho, at Tien-sing, takes an easterly direction, 
winding through an alluvial plain, and falls into the 
gulf of Pe-chee-lee, about forty miles in a straight 
line below that city, but from its numerous windings 
the route by the river is nearly double that distance. 
Its banks are low, covered near the sea coast with 
reeds, and more inland with fields of corn of various 
sorts, particularly the Kow-leang, which grows to the 
height of more than twelve feet. Several villages built 
of sunburnt bricks are scattered along its banks. At 
the entrance of the river is a small fort, which is 
placed by Captain Hall in lat. 38°-57' 1ST. and long. 
117 0, 49 / east of Greenwich. Outside of this entrance 
is said to be a bar, 1 having only three or four feet of 
water on it at low water, the rise of the tide being six 
or seven feet ; the two brigs c Jackall' and ' Clarence ' 
which were attached to Lord Macartney's embassy 
passed over this bar, and anchored opposite to the 
village of Tacoo in three or four fathoms water. 2 
Captain Hall states the rise and fall of tide at the 
anchorage about seven miles from the mouth of the 
river to be twelve feet. Chinese junks of 300 tons 
cross the bar. The tide flows above Tien-sing. A 
bridge of boats 3 is there thrown across it to connect 
the city with the suburb on the left bank. 4 The 
river there is about as broad as the Thames at 
London Bridge, according to my recollection. Lord 
Amherst's embassy reached Tien-sing on the third 

1 Staunton's Embassy. 

2 The river being there 500 yards wide. 

3 There is no permanent bridge across the Pei-ho, below Tong-choo- 
foo, twelve miles from Pekin. 

4 The city is fortified with a wall from twenty-five to thirty feet high ; 
the suburbs are open. 



C PL AX FOR INTERCEPTING 

day after leaving Tacoo ; the boats on board which. 
they were embarked were fitted with masts and 
sails, to take advantage of the wind when favourable, 
but they were tracked by men a great part of 
the way. About 500 trackers l were employed and 
paid 150 cash (about one shilling) each per day. 
The number of junks conveying the embassy was 
twenty. Above Tien-sing, the river in the month of 
August was full of shallows. 

The navigation of the Yellow River is scarcely 
know to Europeans : where it crosses the Imperial 
Canal it is about three quarters of a mile wide 2 flow- 
ing in a ZST.E. direction. When Lord Amherst's 
embassy crossed it. the current ran down at the rate 
of between two and three miles an hour. Barrow 
speaks of the rate being seven miles. The Dutch 
embassy, which crossed it in January 1796. found 
much ice floating in it. 3 The river is stated to nave 
been low at that season, but it is subject to inunda- 
tions, which, with the rapidity of its currents, causes 
it to be little used for navigation. It falls into the 
Yellow Sea in lat. 34° north, about sixty miles below 
the spot where it crosses the canal. The Yang-tse- 
kiang is one of the noblest rivers in the world ; it 
is said to rise in the mountains of Tusan. in the 
thirty-thircl degree of latitude, and after flowing 
with a winding course for more than 2.000 miles, 
falls into the Yellow Sea in nearly the same latitude. 
Lord Amherst's embassy ascended it for more than 

1 Ellis's Embassy, p. S3. 

- 3IS. Journal. Barrow's Ch>:;a. Ellis (p. 269} calls it two-thirds of 
a mile : Le Comre says 450 fathoms. 
* Van Braam. 



THE GEEAT WATER COMMUNICATION, ETC. 7 

280 miles from Kwa-choo to How-kew-hien, where 
it is joined by a large stream from the Poyang 
Lake. I considered its average breadth in this 
portion to be from one mile to one-and-a-half 
mile, 1 but it is studded with numerous large 
and fertile islands, and others entirely covered with 
tall reeds used for fuel, or for facing the embank- 
ments of canals. The tide flows as high as the city 
of Nanking, where the main stream is about two 
miles wide. Above that city, the stream runs con- 
stantly down at the rate of two miles an hour at the 
season we navigated it, October and November. 
The city of Kwa-choo, where we entered the Yang- 
tse-kiang is in lat. 32° , 13 / N. It is built on a rising 
ground on the left or northern bank of the river, 
between two branches of the canal. A third branch 
which turns off at Yang-ehoo-foo falls into the river 
about ten miles more to the west, behind a flat 
island. Opposite Kwa-choo, the Kiang (river, par 
excellence) is about two miles wide. 2 About one 
fourth of the width from the south shore is the island 
of Kinshan (Golden Hill), its summit crowned with 
a pagoda of seven storeys. We were told that 
Kwa-choo was distant from the mouth of the river 
500 Chinese lis, or 150 miles, but we found we 
could seldom rely on the distances given us by 
the Chinese. The lower portion of the river is 
little known to Europeans, and not much used 
by the Chinese since the famous pirate Kox- 
inga ascended it, and attacked Nanking, about the 
period of the Tartar conquest. There is, however, 

1 Ellis calls it two miles. 

2 Barrow ; Le Conite sa) r s a league. 



8 PLAX FOR INTERCEPTING 

no reason to doubt that it corresponds with the 
upper portion in magnitude and depth. 

We had no opportunity of sounding the river, 1 as 
our vessels were generally anchored at night in small 
creeks or canals running up from the river, or made 
fast to islands which lay near the banks; but the 
Chinese give their idea of its depth by their say- 
ing, 'The sea is without a shore, and the Kiang 
without a bottom.' At the mouth of the Kiang is a 
large island, 2 Tson-ming, said to contain many vil- 
lages. 

The foregoing observations show that there is no 
physical difficulty in a squadron of ships of war 
ascending the Kiang as high as Kwa-choo, occupy- 
ing the island of Kinshan, as a look-out station and 
depot for sick, provisions, &c, &c, and thus cutting 
off the communication with Pekin 3 from the south- 
western provinces by the Kiang, and the south- 
eastern provinces by the canal from Hang-choo-foo. 
If a military force were added, Kwa-choo might be 
occupied, and contributions levied upon Yang-choo- 
foo, Tchin-kiang-foo, and Nanking itself, by threaten- 
ing to destroy their suburbs, and the vessels in their 
canals. 

If it should be considered too rash a proceeding to 
attempt such an expedition without first securing 
some post as a rendezvous or place of refit, in case 

1 Near the Seao-kou-shan, in the upper part of the river, one of the 
vessels carrying the Embassy having broken adrift, brought up near the 
middle of the river in fourteen feet water. 

2 Captain Bethune, commanding H.M.S. ' Conway,' has since ascer- 
tained that the entrance on the south side of Tson-ming is practicable for 
ships of the line ; June 1841. 

3 Vide Tlie Chinese, by J. F. Davies, Esq., vol. ii. pp. 8 and 9. 



THE GEEAT WATER COMMUNICATION, ETC. 9 

of damage, the Chusan Islands, lying in 30° north 
latitude and about sixty miles south of the island of 
Tson-ming present many valuable harbours for ships 
of any burden ; l and being situated off the entrance 
of the river leading to Mng-po and Hang-choo-foo, 
their occupation would command all the foreign and 
coasting trade of those cities. 

The Pei-ho, though not offering equal facilities 
with the Kiang to an invading force, is capable of 
conveying the heavy artillery, stores, baggage, and 
sick of an army, would secure one flank of the 
advance, and a constant communication with the 
coast. The anchorage off its mouth, though open, 
is safe during summer. During winter, the intense 
cold would probably prevent the carrying on any 
operations. The country would supply corn, vege- 
tables, and poultry, and the rivers abound in fish ; 
but the invaders must probably depend chiefly on 
their own supplies for meat. 

The opposition from the military force of China is 
not likely to prove very formidable. Navy, they 
have none — and scarcely any artillery. Their in- 
fantry consists of archers, in whom they place most 
confidence, matchlock men, and troops armed with 
swords and shields. They are seldom or never 
brought together for exercise in the evolutions of 
war. Of their cavalry, I am unable to speak. The 
peasantry are a cheerful, good-humoured, industrious 
race; and if protected from ill-usage and paid for 
their services, would probably bring in provisions 
and assist in the transport of baggage, &c, as every- 

1 Staunton's Embassy, vol. i. p. -416. 



10 PLAN FOE INTERCEPTING 

thing in China is carried on men's shoulders. They 
still remember that the ruling dynasty are foreigners 
and conquerors. 

It only remains to add, that the navigation of the 
Yellow Sea, from the mouth of the Canton river to 
that of the Pei-ho, is remarkably free from hidden 
dangers, and there are regular soundings the whole 
way. 

The squadron which conveyed Lord Macartney's 
embassy, consisting of the c Lion ' of 64 guns, ' Hin- 
dostan,' ' East Indiaman,' and two brigs, took thirty- 
one l days to perform the distance, including their 
stay at the Chusan Islands and Ten-choo-foo. Lord 
Amherst's embassy, consisting of five vessels, per- 
formed the same voyage, without touching at any 
intermediate place, in fifteen days. 2 

The success of any enterprise of the nature pro- 
posed must necessarily depend upon its being put 
into execution at a proper time of the year, as respects 
the periodical winds which blow in those seas, and 
the climate at different seasons, the nature and 
amount of the force employed, and the precautions 
taken for keeping it duly supplied at so great a 
distance from any of our own possessions. 

Much secrecy should also be observed as to the 
points intended to be attacked, as the boldness of the 
attempt is then likely to render it unsuspected. 

But I cannot help thinking that with due circum- 
spection on those points, should the national honour 
or the protection of our merchants trading to China 
require us to go to war with that country, a blow 

1 From June 23 to July 24. 

2 From July 13 to July 28. 



THE GREAT WATER COMMUNICATION, ETC. 11 

might be struck, of which the Chinese have at pre- 
sent no conception, and which would speedily re- 
duce them to redress our wrongs, and to allow us 
that access to the Imperial court arid those fair 
commercial privileges which we have in vain sought 
to obtain by peaceful embassies. 

COLCHESTEE. 

Kidbrooke, November, 1839, 



LETTBES, 



Sir George Staunton to Lord Colchester, 

Devonshire Street, February 3, 1840. 

My dear Lord, — I have read with much interest 
your memoir on the 6 Internal Communication of 
China/ and sincerely hope you will communicate it 
to Lord Palmerston. He has had, I believe, many 
plans of operations submitted to him, but I suspect 
none which embraces your proposal — a proposal which, 
if carried into effect with judgment, and, above all, 
secrecy and promptitude, would undoubtedly produce 
far greater impression on China than anything we 
could do with similar means in any other direction. 

The invasion to which you allude of the pirate 
Koxinga, proves that it is practicable, and your lord- 
ship and myself are eye-witnesses of the importance 
of the traffic that would be interrupted. I have 
laboured most anxiously, over and over again, in 
offering suggestions which I thought might avert 
the present melancholy crisis of our affairs in China, 
and which I long saw was impending, but as it is 
come, and our honour and our interests alike compel 
us to resort to hostile demonstration against China, 
there can be no question of the expediency of 



14 LETTERS. 

resorting at once to the most vigorous and effectual 
measures ; and I fear that the maxim of the illus- 
trious Duke of Wellington, that England can never 
engage in a little war, will be exemplified in this, as 
well as in other instances. 

Believe me, my dear Lord, 

Most faithfully yours, 

George Staunton. 
I return the papers. 

Eight Hon. the Lord Colchester, &c, &c. 



Lord Colchester to Viscount Palmerston, Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs. 

8 Great Cumberland Place, February 7, 1840. 

My Lord, — As it is now generally understood that 
Her Majesty's Government have decided upon having 
immediate recourse to measures of hostility against 
China, I take the liberty, as a British officer who has 
had 'an opportunity of visiting the interior of that 
empire (having, through the kindness of Lord Am- 
herst, accompanied him in his embassy to Pekin, and 
on his journey from thence to Canton), to submit to 
your lordship the importance of intercepting their 
Great Internal Water Communication, and a plan, by 
which it appears such an attempt might be success- 
fully executed, so far as our information of the prac- 
ticability of entering their great rivers in ships of 
war enables us to judge. 



LETTERS. 15 

The accompanying memoir was drawn up in the 
autumn, when our relations with China began to 
take a critical turn ; and having laid it before a gen- 
tleman of great experience of Chinese policy, as well 
as local knowledge of the country, who concurred in 
the opinion of the advantages of such an attempt, if 
successful, I now forward it to your lordship, think- 
ing it my duty to afford any information to Her 
Majesty's Government on this question, with which 
so few persons have had an opportunity of making 
themselves practically acquainted, which may con- 
tribute in the slightest degree to the success of Her 
Majesty's arms, or the honour of the country in the 
war, in which we seem to be now fully involved. 
I have the honour to remain, &c, &c, 

COLCHBSTEE. 

To Viscount Palmerston, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 



Viscount Palmerston to Lord Colchester. 

Carlton Terrace, February 7, 1840. 

My dear Lord, — I lose no time in begging you to 
accept my best thanks for the very interesting com- 
munication upon the subject of China, which I have 
received from you to-day. 

Yours sincerely, 

Palmerston. 

The Lord Colchester. 



16 LETTEES. 



Lord Colchester to the Earl of Aberdeen. 

8 Great Cumberland Place, September 20, 1841. 

My dear Lord, — I beg leave to enclose a memoran- 
dum on the Great Internal Water Communication of 
China, with a suggestion of the advantages to be 
derived from intercepting it, by means of a force 
which shall ascend the navigable rivers which inter- 
sect the line. 

Having had the honour of accompanying Lord 
Amherst's embassy in 1816 along the whole line 
described, the practicability of such a plan had long 
ago struck me, and when it became apparent that 
our differences with the Chinese empire must be 
decided by force, I drew up the enclosed memoran- 
dum; and having shown it to a gentleman of great 
experience of Chinese policy, as well as local know- 
ledge of the country, I, at his suggestion, forwarded 
a copy, in February 1840, to the then Secretary for 
Foreign Affairs, Lord Palmerston. 

As the events which have since occurred appear 
to strengthen the opinion contained in it, that mere 
attacks upon sea ports of China would prove in- 
sufficient to reduce the Government of that empire to 
comply with our demands, I now take the liberty of 
again submitting my plan to the consideration of 
Her Majesty's Government, by transmitting it to 
your lordship. 

I have the honour to remain, &c, &c, 

COLCHESTEE. 
The Earl of Aberdeen, &c, &c, &c, 

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 



LETTERS. 17 



The Earl of Aberdeen to Lord Colchester. 

Foreign Office, September 25, 1841, 

My dear Lord;, — I beg to return you my thanks for 
the memorandum on the Internal Water Communi- 
cation of China, which I have read with much 
interest. The suggestions contained in it appear to 
me to deserve serious attention. 

I am, my dear Lord, 

Yery truly yours, 

Aberdeen. 

The Lord Colchester, &c. f &c. 



During the short time that Lord Ellenborough was 
President of the Board of Control in the autumn of 
1841, all affairs connected with China were still 
under the direction of that Board, which led to his 
frequent communications with Lord Colchester, as to 
the details of operations to be carried on in that 
portion of the Yang-tse-kiang where it is crossed by 
the Great Canal, and, by his orders, the survey of the 
river made by Lord Colchester, at Lord Amherst's 
desire, in 1816, was engraved by the Hydrographical 
Office. 1 

After Lord Ellenborough's departure from England, 
to assume the office of Governor- General of India, 
the affairs connected with China were transferred to 
the Colonial Department. 

1 See Memoranda, p. 99. 






EXTEACTS FROM LETTERS. 



Lord Ettenborough to Lord Colchester. 

Government House, Calcutta, March 6, 1842. 

I send off to-day my first dispatch directing the 
officers in command in China. 

I have annexed to it two papers, to which your 
name is attached, relative to the river and the island ; 
so that whenever the dispatch may be published, yon 
will receive the full credit due to you. The force I 
send is enough to march from one end of China to 
the other. 



Lord Ellenhorough to Lady Colchester. 

Allahabad, May 31, 1842. 

Tell Lord Colchester that the troops from England 
did not reach the Cape till March 14, before which 
day two of my regiments had sailed for Singapore. 
I think all my troops will have been there before the 



22 EXTRACTS FEOM LETTERS. 

Queen's. They were sent on as they arrived ; and if Sir 
Hugh Gough enters with spirit into his first instruc- 
tions, he will keep the Queen's birthday in the 
Golden Island, as I promised, and I begged him to 
keep my promise for me, and if any man can, he 
will. He is a thoroughly fine soldier. 



Lord Ellenborough to Lord Colchester. 

Allahabad, July 7, 1842. 

Everything has hitherto favoured the expedition 
to China. Six steamers and ten men-of-war passed 
on through the straits in April and May. Three 
steamers more are* on the sea. All the Indian troops, 
except four hundred, had left Singapore before any 
of the Queen's. These last sailed on the 17th and 
19th of May. Every vessel was clear of the straits 
by May 28. 

The naval and military commanders intended to 
attack Chapoo, where the Chinese had collected 
stores, &c, about May 1, and then to go to the Yang- 
tse-kiang, where they hoped to get possession of the 
Golden Island, and even of Nankin, before the rein- 
forcements arrived, and then they intended to go to 
the Pei-ho. At this time, they did not know when 
the reinforcements would arrive, nor had they re- 
ceived their instructions. 

As some of the Madras troops left Singapore on 
April 8, I hope they will be in time to attack the 
Golden Island. I am very anxious Indian troops 
should be employed there. Orders had been given 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 23 

to detain the recruits for the Queen's regiments at 
Hong-Kong. This will only give Sir Hugh Gough 
the 98th, and as that regiment and his other troops 
can hardly leave Chusan before 1st of July, I do not 
think there can be sufficient time to effect anything 
decisive in the vicinity of Pekin. Besides, the Chinese 
have a great army of 40,000 men at Hang-chow-foo, 
and when we occupy the Yang-tse-kiang, we shall cut 
this army off, and be able to beat it, and thus, in 
fact, hold all the southern part of China. In fact, 
the only danger is, that we may have hit too hard a 
blow. 



Lord Ellenhorough to Lady Colchester, 

Meerut, August 31, 1842. 

Hitherto the accounts of the Chinese Expedition 
are most favourable. All, except the portion of the 
39th M. N. I., which was at Penang, had passed 
Hong-Kong to the northward on the 12th of June, 
and there was no sickness. All were in good health 
and spirits, soldiers and sailors. 



Lord Ellenhorough to Lord Colchester, enclosing procla- 
mation and notification prefixed, to China Dispatches, 

Simla, October 17, 1842. 

In point of fact, you may take the credit of the 
success of the war, for if you had never brought the 



24 EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 

circumstances of the Grand Canal passing the Yang- 
tse-kiang, and of the depth of the river, &c, to my 
notice, as you did, I might never have become so 
thoroughly acquainted with the subject as I was. 
My merit has been in insisting upon the adoption of 
that point of attack, when I was satisfied it was the 
best. 



Lord EUenborough to Lord Colchester, enclosing copy of 
Sir Hugh Gough's private and confidential letter. 

Camp, three marches north of Delhi, February 2, 1843. 

My dear Colchester, — I see by Lizzy's letter that 
you were under the mistake of supposing that my 
orders to Sir Hugh Gough and Sir W. Parker, direct- 
ing them to the Yang-tse-kiang, were not received 
by them in time. I enclose a copy of & private letter 
from Sir Hugh Gough to me, which will put you in 
possession of the whole case. I took upon myself a 
fearful responsibility, when, adhering to my own fixed 
opinion, in favour of attacking by that river, in pre- 
ference to the Pei-ho, I directed Sir Hugh Gough, 
if he should acquiesce in my reasoning against going 
to the Pei-ho, and his colleagues should differ from 
him, to follow my original instructions, and not those 
subsequently on February 4, addressed to him from 
home. However, Sir Hugh Gough and Sir W. 

Parker both acquiesced in my reasoning You 

had the merit of pointing out the true point of 
attack to an adverse Government. I had the merit 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS. 25 

of adopting it, of sending a sufficient force to effect 
the object, and of adhering to my own opinion, under 
the circumstances I have mentioned — by which 
adherence the object has been accomplished. 
Yours ever sincerely, 

Ellekborough. 



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